Of Two Minds
by TheAwesomeStecca
Summary: Feliciano and Lovino are living on the streets, with a secret that keeps them from getting close to anyone. Will their lives get better or worse after being forced to join a pirate crew, and what will happen when their secret finally comes out? Rated T for some (minor) violence, Romano's mouth, and some angsty feelings. Pirate AU. Main pairings: Gerita and Spamano.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

Lovino's POV

I'm almost out of breath. I'm a pretty good runner, I have been in situations like this enough, but a person can only run for their lives at full speed for so long. It also doesn't help having a certain annoying Italian practically yelling in my year.

"Lovi! Why'd you have to steal from those nice people? They let us spend the night and fed us! And the food was pretty good too. I mean it wasn't as good as pasta, but there really isn't really anything as good as pasta. I wish I had pasta right now. Like maybe spaghetti or tortellini or cannoli or fettuccine or…"

At this point I'm not really listing to my twin brother. I know he'll be rambling on for the next who knows how long about every kind of pasta known to man until he runs out of ideas, or finds something new to capture his interest. Since I had already heard this about a thousand times in the past few days alone, I decide to focus on the more important task, escaping our pursuers while avoiding falling on my face. I don't know how Feli could be this energetic, because I know for a fact that he's just as tired as I am. And who on Earth has a casual conversation while running for his life?

Although, Feli may have had a point. At least, before he got lost on the vast subject of pasta. It's true that the couple had seemed nice. When they saw us on the streets, they had offered us a meal and a place to stay for the night, but that was the problem, it would only be for the night, and then Feli and I would be right back out on the streets, in just as bad a situation as the one we had started in. Feli seemed to think that they would take us in forever and become our new family, but I was more realistic. As soon as they found out about our little "issue" they would send us back out on the streets even quicker than they took us in, just like all the others had. Besides, even though Feli and I looked like we were in our early teens, we're both eighteen, about to turn nineteen. We're a little old to be adopted into some random family like in a little kid's book. But anyway, back to the present. I'm still running full speed, and can still hear the sound of pursuit behind me, although thankfully when I turn my head to the side I can't see anyone. That means that I can lose them, if I can find a good spot to hide. Unfortunately the street my brother and I are on seems perfectly straight, with not even a small alley to turn off into.

Who the hell designed this place? Those idiots should have realized someone's life might hang on whether or not they could find a good spot to hide!

Just as Feli and I are about to fall down from exhaustion, we see our chance. Up ahead there is a four way intersection. Putting on a burst of speed that I didn't even know was possible, I force Feli and I to the street on the left, we then run for a while before finding a large crate that we crouch down behind. By this point Feli has finally gotten too tired, and scared, to continue his list of pasta, so it's quiet now.

That quiet lasts for about ten seconds before I hear the sound of the city guard running down the street. Apparently they had enough of them to search all the streets, or they were just lucky. I hold my breath and pray to God that I'm completely hidden from view. I sit there, and sit there, and sit there for what seems to be an eternity. Thankfully, Feli's smart enough to not talk. So far none of the guards have found our hiding place. However, we stay where we are, knowing that it'll be awhile before it will be safe to leave. Resigned to the long wait, I begin to let my mind wander over our current predicament.

From what I can tell, nearly the entire guard is after us. It's ridiculous. After all, all I had stolen was some food, some new clothes, a _tiny_ bit of money, a couple pieces of expensive looking jewelry, that ring that Mrs. WhatsHerFace had called a family heirloom, those two… never mind, scratch that, I guess I had stolen a bit more than just the necessities. Said stolen items are currently stored in a bag that I'm clutching in my lap, holding still so that it wouldn't make too much noise. After we get out of this place, Feli and I will be able to sell these on the black-market, and make enough money to survive awhile. This would have all gone a lot better if _Mr_. WhatsHisFace was not the head of the guard in this city. He definitely knew how to quickly round up a search. Stealing from him was probably not the most intelligent thing I had ever done, but then everyone makes mistakes sometimes right?

Not that it's my fault. Obviously it is Feliciano's fault. _He_ was the one who got us invited into that house. That couple had taken one look at his pitiful puppy dog eyes, and were all over him in an instant, immediately inviting him, us, into their home. I had held back, not saying anything, and let Feli do all the talking. He was much better at the whole "social interaction" thing than I was, and so I usually let him take charge of that. It was _him_ who got their attention, _him_ who got us invited into their home and _him_ who was at fault in this situation, not me.

Blaming someone else has really made me feel better, and I'm finally calm and focused on the shouting and pounding feet of the search.

* * *

Those guards are idiots! They had been searching all over for the past few hours, and none of them had even thought to look behind the giant crate against the wall! Of course, I'm not complaining, their idiocy makes our escape a lot easier.

Despite their idiocy, Feli and I are still tensed, not sure if our luck will continue to hold. After another hour or so however, the sound of the search has disappeared, and I breath a quite sigh of relief. I know it's possible that the guards are just trying to trick us out, but after another half hour of waiting, I am ninety percent sure that we are safe. I would have waited longer, but both Feli and I are in quite a lot of pain from our cramped position, and we both wanted to get out of it as soon as possible.

"Alright Feli, I think they're gone, but we still need to be careful. We're going to peek around and see what's going on, and then, if it's clear, try to get out of here" I quickly instruct my brother.

"Ve! Alright then fratello!" How he can sound so excited and chipper at a time like this is beyond me, but I don't have time to worry about that. I desperately want to get us out of this position. I throw the bag over my shoulder and get ready to move.

We creep around the edge of the crate, and look around. The coast appears to be clear, so we continue forward. I glance around again; we seem to be at the docks of the city. That explains why the guards hadn't found us, there were giant crates everywhere, and there was no way they could have checked behind all of them. We continue to creep forward until we hear a conversation approaching behind us. We jump behind a crate, a different one from the first time, and hide there, waiting as they walk by.

"…don't know why I continue to do this. I have absolutely no reason to put my neck on the line like this," an aristocratic voice said as he was approaching.

"Sure you do!" a loud voice with an irritating accent replied, "Her name is Elizaveta, or have you forgotten about your fiancé so quickly?" He asked with his irritating accent. The two continue to talk as they approach. The spot we are hiding in is not nearly as sheltered as our previous one, so I can see their silhouettes as they draw nearer. I can only hope that the shadows will be sufficient to hide us. As they draw nearer, their features begin to be more defined. The aristocratic sounding one is a brunette with a huge cowlick that can be seen even in the poor lighting, and he is wearing a very fancy looking suit. The other, with the annoying accent I had finally decided was German, had extremely blond (it was almost _white_) hair, a lean build, and was wearing some sort of sailor outfit.

"Anyways," the blond continued, "even without Elizaveta in the equation, you still would have helped out, because the awesome me commanded it, and you cannot resist the power of my awesome commanding skills."

The brunette muttered something unintelligible under his breath, and then continued in a somewhat louder volume, "First off, shut your mouth, we don't want anyone to hear us; Second, if you weren't Eliza's so called 'best friend', I would have attacked you for that completely untrue statement. In a very gentlemanly way, of course."

The conversation continues along those lines as they slowly walk down the street. I know I recognize the brunette, but for the life of me I can't lay a finger on where I know him from. Thankfully, Feli figures it out for me, in one of his rare, "_not a complete idiot_" moments.

"Isn't that Mr. Edelstein from last week?" he quietly asks me. I'm shocked for a moment at the fact that my obnoxious brother just said something both logical and quiet, he must be more afraid than I thought. But anyways, that's right it _is_ Mr. Edelstein, we had come across him in the few weeks we had been living in this city. Well by come across I mean that he has walked by us with his nose in the air while I had thrown insults at his "aristocratyness" until Feli had shut me up. After that happened, we found out that he was one of the richest and most influential people in the city, owning some big merchant company or something like that. I was curious as to what he was doing out here, in what seemed to be quite a covert affair. Whatever he was doing, he definitely did not want to get caught doing it.

"Whatever Roddy. Let's just get the supplies to the _Lucha Tomate_ and then you can get paid and leave." Oh God! The _Lucha Tomate_, isn't that the name of a pirate ship? Oh shit, does that make those people pirates? I couldn't see any other options, but also couldn't understand what this aristocratic bastard would be doing with pirates. I was so distracted by my thoughts that I didn't notice said aristocrat pointing out which crates were the supplies supposed to be loaded onto the ship, nor the footsteps approaching our hiding place. Because of this I was completely taken off guard as our crate was pulled away from the wall, apparently being one of them that were to be taken to the ship. I let out a, very manly, screech as a very shocked very German, face come into my line of sight. Crap, we're screwed. Feli is screaming something about how he was too pathetic to kill, his usual surrender speech, while I'm running through every curse I knew in both English and Italian (the list is even longer than Feli's list of pasta believe it or not). After a moment, the German cuts us off.

"Dammit, no one was supposed to hear that!" He looks over at the aristocrat, who looks extremely horrified that he had been seen in his less than ideal surroundings. "I guess we have no choice but to bring you to the Captain, we can't have anyone knowing about our arrangement." He seems to regret what he's saying, but grabs us roughly anyway. "If you try to run I will not hesitate to slit your throat." he says, and then begins to force us towards the dock, where I can see a large boat docked. He roughly drags us across the gangplank and onto the ship. Pushing us to the ground, he mutters in an intimidating voice, "Welcome to the _Lucha Tomate_."

Yep… we're screwed.

* * *

**Characters and Translations**

**Feliciano=N. Italy**

**Lovino=S. Italy (Romano)**

**"Roddy"= Austria**

**Elizaveta= Hungary**

**That white haired (annoying) German (Gilbert) =Prussia**

**_Lucha Tomate_****= Fighting Tomato (you can yell at Google Translate for my awful Spanish if necessary)**

**AN: So yeah, here's my new story (and by new I mean I've been working on it since the end of last year). It's all finished, so I'll probably have a pretty regular update schedule. Please review! Reviews make me happy and I usually end up running around the house with my laptop in hand to flip out (in happiness) and talk about any I get. I like critical reviews too, because they make me a better writer. **

**So yeah, I hope you enjoyed it, and review and follow and whatnot. Until next time.**


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: Hey guys! Thank you for following, and favoriting, and reviewing (inwardly squealing that people actually read this)! Thank you "felicianavargas. " for the correction, cannoli isn't a pasta, I'm not really sure where I got that idea, or why I included it in the list. Sorry. So yeah, read on!**

** Disclamer: I don't own Hetalia...**

Gilbert's POV

_God_! Roddy takes so damn long to walk. For someone in a hurry to get out of here, he's sure taking his time. Actually, things would probably be going a lot quicker if I had agreed to let him ride on my back, but I'm _way_ too awesome for that. Of course our slow movement isn't completely his fault. The guards are everywhere tonight, and so every time one showed up, I had to hide so no one would see Little Miss Priss associating with a big, scary, (awesome), pirate.

I never stop being surprised that Roderich always comes with me in person to receive payment for supplies; he's the head of a company, one would think he would have at least one person he could send to point out what crates to take, and then collect the money. Of course, I'm pretty sure he does it just because he wants to see the awesome me more often, but he always denies that. No matter his reasons, I sometimes wish he _would_ send someone else sometimes; it would make my job so much easier.

At least we're nearly to the boat. Not only that, but the guards have finally seemed to disappear. That means that I won't have to listen to Roddy's complaints for much longer. Unfortunately, I still have to listen to them for now.

"This is just ridiculous! I don't know why I continue to do this. I have absolutely no reason to put my neck on the line like this"

If I hadn't known him for as long as I did, Roderich's words probably would have freaked me out, after all if he stopped delivering us supplies we just might be screwed. His company was our main way of getting the necessities, and without it would be a lot harder to keep our ship running. Thankfully, I do know Roddy, and so I know that he's only talking because he loves to complain.

This also means that I can egg him on without any actual consequence.

"Sure you do. Her name is Elizaveta, or have you forgotten so quickly?" It's always funny to see his reaction when I talk about Lizzie. Until about a year ago, she had been a pirate on the _Tomate_, but then she had somehow managed to fall in love with _this guy, _and left the crew to be with him. He always gets mad at me when I mention her, as if he's afraid that I'll kidnap her and bring her back to the ship. If only he would realize that _that_ would never happen, my head had finally started to heal from the multiple concussions she gave me, and I'm perfectly happy letting it _continue_ to heal.

"Anyways," I continue, deciding to see how far I can push him before he starts to flip out. "Even without Elizaveta in the equation, you still would have helped out, because the awesome me commanded it, and you cannot resist the powers of my awesome commanding skills."

Roderich replies by muttering something that is definitely not very gentlemanly at all. He then continues talking as if he hadn't said anything.

"First off, shut your mouth, we don't want anyone to hear us; Second, if you weren't Eliza's so called 'best friend', I would have attacked you for that completely untrue statement. In a very gentlemanly way, of course." I have to laugh at that, Roddy and I both know that who would win in a fight between the two of us, and it definitely wouldn't be the priss.

"Who's going to hear us?" I asked, "The guards have obviously given up their search, and no one goes to the port around this time of night, especially not when they know a _big scary_ pirate ship is docked." This is one of the only cites where we don't bother trying to make our ship look more innocent in. Pretty much every pirate ship out there had named this city, and a few others, as a safe port, which means that no one will attack the city, and in return the city will let us be. That being said, people are still wary of the pirates, barely anyone will trade with us (which is why Roderich was so important), and the docks are always _mysteriously_ empty whenever a pirate ship is docked. Some people might be slightly offended by this, but I'm grateful, as it makes my job a whole lot easier.

"I don't care how unlikely it is that people are going to see; every second I'm out here I'm endangering my company's trustworthy reputation."

_Ug._ Roderich is so uptight sometimes, although he is right. You never know what will happen.

"Whatever Roddy. Let's just get the supplies to the _Lucha Tomate_ and then you can get paid and leave."

"Alright fine. Most of the crates are in that warehouse to the right; I have the key for that. The crates lying in front of it are yours too." Roderich points out exactly which crates he's talking about, and I walk over to grab one. I'll bring one of the crates on board, and then round up some crew to help me get the rest.

I lift one of the crates up, grunting a little at the weight. As I'm lifting it though, I see something I was not expecting to see.

Some kid is crouched there, staring at me in shock. How the… who the… what the hell? Crap, he must have heard our conversation, and found out about Roderich's involvement with pirates. _Crap_!

I'm snapped out of my shock when the boy starts to scream at me. He's cursing at me in ways I didn't even know were possible, and in multiple languages. If the situation weren't so bad, I probably would have complemented him on his vast vocabulary. However, the situation is what it is, and I have to do something about it.

"Dammit, no one was supposed to hear that!" I look over at Roddy, and see that he looks even more freaked out than I do. After a few more seconds of looking at him, I turn back to the boy.

"I guess we have no choice but to bring you to the Captain, we can't have anyone knowing about our arrangement." I feel really bad for the kid, he only looks fifteen at most, but he heard what he shouldn't have, and I can't very well let him go. Because of this, I grab his arm and pull him to his feet, then grab his other hand and force them both behind his back so he can't move them. "If you try to run I will not hesitate to slit your throat." I say, and then I begin to push the boy towards our boat. He struggles a lot less than I feared. Roderich follows quickly behind me, still obviously worried. Once we get aboard the ship, I push the kid to the ground.

"Welcome to the _Lucha Tomate_." I mutter. I wonder what will happen to this kid. Knowing the captain, we probably won't kill him, but I can't think of what else we _can_ do.

I turn to Roderich. "Go down and find Francis, and tell him to get some people together to collect the crates, give him the key to the warehouse. Then find the captain, and ask him to come up and deal with this." I can tell he's about to protest, but I cut him off. "Yeah, yeah, I know you're too high and mighty to actually do something, but I'm busy saving your ass right now, so it would be _great_ if you actually helped out"

"Fine." He mutters, obviously not happy with the situation. He then turns and goes beneath deck to do as I asked.

I'm surprised that no one's on deck keeping watch. Captain always tries to have at least one person on deck while we were docked to guard the ship. Then I remembered that tonight is Heracles's night to keep watch. Knowing him, he A) got bored and fell asleep, B) saw some cat on the dock and got distracted by its cuteness, or C) had Sadiq come up and distract him in a… different way. No matter the reason though, I'm really not surprised I didn't have him to help out.

I shake my head, snapping out of that train of thought, and look back down at the kid. He looks absolutely terrified, but unfortunately I can't do anything to comfort him, and in fact, I'll probably freak him out even more by the time the night's over.

I walk a little bit away from him, looking back every couple seconds to make sure he isn't trying to move, and grab some rope lying around. I then come back towards him trying to figure out the best way to tie him up. I decide that since he probably won't stay above deck for long, I should just tie him to the mast. That way he will be immobilized without me having to spend too much with anything special.

I grab him by his arm, and drag him toward the mast, only half getting him to his feet. Once we're there, I force him back down, and grab his other arm. I tie them together behind the mast, so that there is no way he can move out of the position he is in. After thinking for a second, I get another rope and use it as an impromptu gag, to keep him quiet. That boy had a set of lungs on him, and although he's quieted down, it's better safe than sorry.

I look down at the kid, and I feel really bad for him. He looks really freaked out, and he probably should. I don't know what's going to happen to him, but I'm sure he doesn't deserve it. It's not his fault he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Unawesomely, that doesn't change the fact that he is a danger to us. I just hope the captain can come up with a way to keep him quiet that doesn't involve his death.

* * *

"Please. Common Gil for me." I mentally facepalm. What kind of world am I living in where a pirate captain has to beg a member of his crew for anything? Then again, I'm not surprised, this is Toni after all.

I'm still not exactly sure how Antonio managed to be a pirate captain. He's so gentle, and usually hates any kind of confrontation, let alone violence. His career choice never seizes to confuse me; it just doesn't make since for a guy like Toni to be a pirate.

True, _pirate_, wasn't quite the right word for us, but it was the easiest thing to say. I suppose a better word would be _mercenary_. Usually, the only time we attack a ship is if we have a contract to, and although we do take a share of whatever is on board, we always leave some to make sure that we aren't putting anyone out on the streets, and we rarely attack anyone on land. We definitely never mercilessly pillage or plunder, usually the only people who get killed in our raids are those who refuse to put down their weapons and try to kill us. Even in their cases, we tried to spare them, but that's not always possible.

"Please. Pretty Please." I get snapped out of my thoughts by Toni, who's still begging me. I don't know why he's so desperate. Of course I'll do it. Even if he hadn't been my captain I would have helped him out. He is one of my best friends too after all.

"Ja. Of course the Awesome Me will help you out, it's no problem."

A couple hours had passed since we had run into the kid, and we had just left port. After Roderich had gotten Toni, he asked me to take the kid to the brig (I also took the bag he had to one of the storage rooms, I now have an idea of who the guard had been searching for earlier), and after I did that I helped with the crates. After Francis opened the warehouse, Roderich took the keys and left. Usually he would stay and lock up after we left, but he was obviously still shaken up over almost having been discovered, and so he apparently decided to trust us.

Toni decided that the best thing to do would be to bring the kid below deck to the brig, and then focus on leaving port. He wanted to leave as soon as possible, in case the kid had family looking for him. I thought that was unlikely, but it was still a good idea anyways.

Now that we had finally left the dock, it was time to figure out what to do with the kid. Toni thought the first thing to do with him would be to just talk, mostly to figure out if anyone was going to come looking for him. Unawesomely, Toni didn't want to be the one to talk to him, and so the job went to me.

I would be kind of upset about it, but it's probably for the best. The only other people that Antonio would have chosen are Ludwig or Francis, neither of which would be a good choice. Ludwig (aka my mostly-unawesome little bro) is Toni's first mate (I still have no clue how that happened) but he isn't exactly good at dealing with people, so he wouldn't get very far in an interview. And Francis is well… Francis. I don't want to add being hit on by a creepy French dude to the kid's list of reasons why he's traumatized, so Francis was definitely out. Which leaves me.

"Ooh, thank you, thank you, thank you~!" I quickly found myself being hugged by an overexcited Spaniard. I have no clue why asking some kid a couple questions was worth getting this excited about.

"Ja, ja, no problem. I am awesome, what more do you expect?" After a couple moments, I manage to maneuver myself out of Toni's hug, and begin to head to the brig. Toni follows me; he had decided to come with me in case he had any specific questions that he needed to ask me to ask the kid.

I open the door that leads to the brig, and walk in; Toni is close behind me, although he's staying in the shadows. I look through the bars to the kid balled up on the ground, and am once again hit with a wave of pity. I can tell that Toni is too.

I really hope we don't have to kill this kid.

* * *

**Charectors**

**Heracles= Greece**

**Sadiq=Turkey (did you like my ****_totally subtle hint _****at GreeceXTurkey? I like that pairing way too much...)**

**Antonio=Spain**

**Ludwig=Germany**

**AN: So here's the next chapter, narrated by the Awesome Prussia. So did I confuse anybody?! If so, don't be concerned, it'll eventually be clear. Also... Thankyou Thankyou Thankyou to everyone who reviewed, followed, and favorited... heck to everyone who's even read it! I get super happy when I get any alerts related to this story!**

**So question, I have this whole thing written, but I haven't quite decided how often to update it. I'll probably update three to four times a week (like maybe Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sundays) plus more days if I randomly want to post (like today for example). Any suggestions on that? More, less? Please review to help me out, and also to say whatever else you feel like saying too (oh, and follow and favorite and whatnot also).**


	3. Chapter 3

**Third Person POV- Eight Years Ago**

_"You will suffer for what you have done!" The man shouted in rage_

_The twins shrank back in fear, not understanding what they had done to make this man so angry, all they knew was that something horrible was about to happen._

_"From this day forth, the two of you will live in the same body, but with both of your minds still intact, as punishment for what you have done!"_

_The boys whimpered in pain, as a wave of black magic washed over them. The magic dug down into their very being, pulling each of them apart while simultaneously pulling the two of them together. As the spell went on, the man continued to speak._

_"But that is only part of your punishment,"_

* * *

**Lovi's POV- Present Day**

"_Feli, will you shut up already?_!?" Feli has been talking nonstop since we had gotten dragged below deck what seemed like hours ago. I'm pretty sure he's praying or something, but he's talking so fast that I can't even tell. I feel a little bad for snapping at him for it, I know that he's scared and talking is the way he deals with his fear, but I can only take so much of his chatter.

After all, it's not like he's the only one who's scared. I have no clue what's going to happen to us; all I know is that we are now at the mercy of a pirate crew.

I look around the room for probably the hundredth time since we were thrown down here. At first I was looking for a way out, until I realized that even if I managed to get out of this cell, there was little chance I would be able to get off the boat. After the ship started moving, I stopped even thinking about escape; sure Feli and I could swim, but not good enough to get back to land.

At this point I'm just searching the room to keep my mind occupied. It isn't really working, but it can't hurt to try.

The room is split into two parts by a set of bars. The bars are far enough apart that I could slip my arm through, but only to a little past my elbow. On the side of the room where Feli and I are, there is a small cot, and also a set of shackles. I'm extremely grateful we hadn't been put in those. The part we're in is the much bigger part; it was obviously made so that a captor could be inside along with the prisoner. The bars have a door built into them, so that a person could come in and out, but (obviously) said door was locked. The part of the room on the other side of the bars is small. The only things there are on that side is the door to the rest of the ship, a small chair, and a lantern. All of the "furniture" is bolted down to either the walls or the floors.

"_Lovi…_" Feli jolts me from my thoughts. He's much quieter than usual, and he seems to have an extra layer of nervousness in his voice. I realize he's also worried about how I'll respond to him talking after I had told him to shut up, in addition to the obvious things he's worrying about. I feel awful, only Feli could manage to be sensitive to other's feelings in a situation like this one.

"_Yeah what is it Feli_?" I kept my voice gruff, but called him by his nickname to show that I'm not mad at him.

"_Lovi, I'm scared_."

"_I know Feli, me too. I honestly don't know what's going to happen to us_." My words are obviously not helping, but I decide it would be best to be straight with Feli. "_Now listen Feli, let me handle this okay. Just stay back. Whenever you're the one who has to do the talking, just do what I say, alright? I'm going to do my best to keep you from getting hurt."_

"_Alright fratello, if you say so_."

We both then go back to comforting ourselves in our own ways, Feli by chattering/praying (thankfully quieter than earlier), and me by looking over the room for the hundred and first time.

I don't even complete one sweep of the room before someone opens the door on the other side of the bars. Two men walk into the room. One of them walks forward almost all the way to the bars, but the other stays back. I quickly realize that the one who walked forward is annoying German from before (whose hair on closer inspection actually _is_ white). I can barely make out anything of the other man, other than the fact that he seems pretty tall.

My attention is drawn away from the man in the shadows, when the white haired German starts talking.

"Alright, so I'm the awesome Gilbert, and I'm here to ask you some questions."

I nod, not wanting to speak. He said he just wants to ask questions, but I don't exactly trust him not to do anything bad. I decide I should probably stay on my best behavior either way, just to be safe. I don't want to be attacked because I accidentally offend him or something dumb like that.

He sees me nod, and after a couple of seconds, he realizes it means he should continue talking. "So first off, what's your name?"

I think about that for a second, and then decide to just give him mine, since I told Feli I would do all the talking. Hopefully I'll somehow get us out of this situation before anyone realizes there are more than one of us here.

"Lovino." I choose to just give my first name. Even though my last name, Vargas, means next to nothing, I still don't feel comfortable giving it to a complete stranger, for whatever reason.

"Alright then Lovi," What the hell? I barely know this guy, plus he's holding me prisoner, why would he think it would be alright to call me Lovi? I barely let Feli call me that, and I've _literally _known him my entire life.

I cut him off before he can even finish his question. "Don't call me Lovi bastard. It's Lovino. Lo-vi-no" The man raises an eyebrow at me, and I realize I just threw the whole _best behavior_ thing out the window. I cringe back expecting some kind of punishment, but he just laughs (I think it was a laugh, he may have been choking, I can't tell). Feli quietly says something to me about my language, but I mostly ignore him.

"Alright then **_Lovino_**_,_" _better_ "how old are you?"

"Eighteen, almost nineteen." I see the look on his face when I say that, and I cut him off before he can respond. "Yes. I know I look like a freaking twelve year old, you don't have to say it."

Once again the man, Gilbert, laughs, but this time I'm pretty sure the guy behind him does too.

"Got any family?" he asks.

"None that give a shit." I reply. Gilbert looks at me in a way that clearly states that I need to elaborate. "Parents are dead, have been since we," I quickly stop and correct myself, "_I_ was a baby. I was raised by my grandfather, but when I was ten, he got up and left. He might be dead, or he might have just ditched, either way, he's not in my life anymore."

I can tell what I said made Feli sad. "_Nonno didn't ditch us, I'm sure he had a good reason for leaving. Nonno loved us."_

_"Sure, sure."_ I respond, not really paying attention to Feli. This was really not the time to have a brotherly heart to heart with him.

In fact, it was probably the worst possible time. Judging by the look on Gilbert's face, he had just asked me a question that I had completely missed.

"Uhhh, say that again will you?"

Gilbert looks at me strangely, but then repeats his question. "Where do you live?"

"Nowhere really. I just wander around city to city." I was extra careful this time not to use the plural. I didn't want him to know about Feli.

The questioning continues awhile, with Gilbert doing all the talking, and the man in the shadows being silent except for his occasional (okay so much more than occasional) laughter. The two men were now conversing, probably deciding what to do with us.

I realize with a start how truly screwed I am. Almost all the questions they asked were to find out if I had any connections, anyone to miss me if I disappeared. And I had basically told them that the rest of the world probably didn't know that I existed, and that no one would notice if I were gone. I had pretty much given them free reign to do what they wanted with me, I should have lied and said that there would be trouble if I weren't returned safely.

"_It's alright fratello. It's not like you did anything wrong, you just told the truth."_ I realize after Feli says that, that all of my negative emotions are washing over to him, probably freaking him out more than he already is, and so I worked to calm myself down.

I was kind of failing at calming down, I think I was making it worse, so I'm actually grateful when the man turns and walks back towards us. I would rather hear our sentence, even if it was awful, than be stuck wondering what it was going to be. Even so, I'm still extremely nervous. Feli is chanting a prayer, and I wonder if he has the right idea. I join him for a few lines of the prayer, not out loud of course, before Gilbert interrupts us by speaking.

"Alright so as you know, we can't just let you go on your merry way, so we're giving you two choices. First choice, you die. If you choose that one, there are actually a few choices within that, you can choose how you want to die and if you want to be burned or thrown overboard afterwards. In my opinion that's the unawesome choice, but I'm just throwing it out there."

I'm shocked to say the least; he's talking about our death the way a waiter would ask for your order.

"The second choice, in my opinion the much more awesome choice, is to join with the crew. We could use an extra pair of hands, and you seem like you might be able to keep up with the work. You'd mostly just keep the ship clean and stuff, at least until you proved yourself able to do anything else. So yeah… death or pirate… your choice."

"_Well Feli, what do you think?" _I ask, although the answer is pretty obvious.

"Well… _I've always been pretty good at cleaning. And I don't think death sounds very nice so…"_

"Yeah fine, I get to be a pirate. Woohoo." Gilbert rolls his eyes at my sarcastic excitement, and I hear more laughter from the guy behind him.

"Alright, welcome to our awesome crew then."

"Great. Now can I get out of this fucking cell already bastard?

* * *

**AN: Here's the next chapter! I've decided to do a Monday, Wednesday, Friday update pattern, with some Saturdays thrown in there, so yeah. Thanks for all the following and favoriting, and please please ****_please_**** keep reviewing (or review for the first time, that's cool too). I really appreciate any reviews I get, so feel free to say something, even if it's only a couple of words. Also, feel free to ask if anything seems confusing, I tried to explain a lot in this chapter, and I'm not sure if I was very clear on everything, so ask away.**

**Alright so, bye, until next time! **


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you for reviewing, and following, and favoriting and asdfhgjkjl (and yes, that is a proper word). I'm really happy right now! ...ahem, well anyways, enjoy the next chapter!**

**Ludwig's POV**

_"I want you to get the new guy, Lovino up this morning and show him around the ship."_ Was what Antonio had told me first thing this morning. I had really wanted to refuse, but I knew that the captain would have started begging me to do it, and although I can take on five different people in a sword fight at one time, I am nothing against the puppy dog face that Antonio seems to be so good at making. Not only that, but if I had let him beg awhile before I said yes, and I know for a fact that I eventually would have, I would have had to endure one of his signature bear hugs.

And that is why I am now standing in the main sleeping area, trying to figure out how to wake up this, apparently bad tempered, brunette. From what I had heard from Gilbert last night, this kid had a fiery temper and a vocabulary to match it, and although I knew I could take him on in a fight with both my hands tied behind my back, I did not particularly want his anger to be focused on me.

Which is why I had come to wake him up after the majority of the crew had already gotten out of bed; they weren't exactly quiet in the morning and I was hoping their noise would wake the kid up.

Unfortunately he was still sound asleep in his hammock, meaning I would have to be the one to wake him up. Great. I prepare myself to be thoroughly cussed out, before reaching down to shake the kid(even though he was apparently an eighteen year old)'s shoulder. I have to shake him awhile before he starts to open his eyes.

"Ve~. I'm up, I'm up." He said squinting at me. He then closes his eyes again to rub the sleep out of them. He also mutters something quietly. It sounded like he had said "that's not a very nice thing to say Lovi" but that doesn't make much sense.

"Oops. Sorry!" He then blurts out. I looked at him questioningly wondering why he was apologizing. He meets my gaze for a moment, and then looks back down, quietly telling me never mind.

"Umm… alright then. My name is Ludwig, I'm the first mate of this ship, and I'm supposed to show you around.

The kid jumps up out of bed, in nothing but his boxers I might add, and latches on to me.

"That's a nice name, it's all macho." I blush slightly, trying to get the all but naked guy off of me. "Ooh, can I call you Luddy?"

I was now officially confused out of my mind. What had happened to the guy who had apparently impressed even Gilbert with his vocabulary? I had thought people got _more_ ticked off in the mornings, not less. Either way, as soon as I'm able, I shrug my way out of his hug.

"Uhh…." I really don't want to be called Luddy again. Gilbert had finally stopped calling me that, but I knew that if this kid started calling me Luddy, Gil would start up again too. I was about to tell him no, but something stopped me before I could. _Verdammt!_ This kid (who was already somehow fully dressed…) had even better puppy dog eyes than Antonio. I didn't even think that was possible. "Yes, I suppose. And you're… Lovino right?" I already know that he was, but it seems polite to ask anyways.

"Oh no! Lovino is my fratello. I'm Feliciano~." Wait what? "Stop yelling at me Lovi! Oh! Oops!" I look behind me to see if someone is standing there or something. Who is he talking to? Also why is he calling himself Feliciano, and what is a fratello? I'm sure Antonio had told me his name was Lovino. What the hell is up with this kid?

While I was thinking, I was also watching Lovino/Feliciano/Whatever-his-name-is closely and so I notice when he gets a look as if something had just dawned on him. After another moment he starts to speak again, and his words in no way helping to alleviate my confusion.

"Ve! I mean… my name is Lovino and I'm big and mean!" All of a sudden he had (attempted to) lower his voice, creating a very funny sound. It almost makes me crack a small smile; I choose instead to raise an eyebrow at him. "Uhh… I don't know who this Feliciano is that you're talking about is, because I am Lovino! Umm… umm… oh and you're a bastard!" What the heck was going on? This is just weird. "No offence of course!" He said that in his regular voice (if you could call a guy's voice that was at least an octave above most male's voices regular), only adding to my confusion. "So uhh… can we start this tour… wait no this _fucking_ tour… yeah can we start this fucking tour now?"

"Uhh… sure?" I reply. Although it ended up sounding more like a question than an answer, Lovino (?) doesn't seem to notice anything. I turn to exit the room, and he follows behind me (I'm pretty sure he's skipping).

I have no clue what is going on, but it's not normal. After I finish this tour, I'll report back to Antonio, and tell him what I have noticed. After that, he can deal with all the craziness and I can be out of it. Although, I have a strong feeling that Antonio will convince me to at least help out with it all.

* * *

**Lovino's POV**

I wish I had my own body right now, I really do. I could really use my hands right now, although I'm not sure if the first thing I would use them for would be to facepalm, or to smack my idiotic brother. Either way, a body would be nice.

* * *

**Feliciano's POV**

Ve. Today has been stressful so far. Lovi keeps yelling at me for saying things to him out loud! It's not my fault, it's really easy to get confused and not be able to tell the difference between the two. And about the whole '_I'm not Lovi I'm Feli'_ thing, well… mornings are hard. After that though, Lovi kept yelling at me nonstop.

Although I did make myself feel better by how well I did a Lovi impression. Sure Lovi said it was bad, but that's just because it embarrassed him how much like him I could be. I think.

Unfortunately, my impression just made Lovi angrier at me; he kept saying something about everyone figuring out our secret. I don't see how.

Right now my new friend Luddy is trying to give us a tour of the ship, but I'm too distracted by Lovi to follow what he was saying.

"_I mean seriously why the hell would you..."_

"_Hey, uh Lovi…_" I say, cutting him off (this time I managed to not say it out loud!). "_Sorry to interrupt you, but Luddy's trying to show us around the ship and I can't pay attention to him with you yelling at me. …it's a big ship and I don't want to get lost._"

"_Fine idiot."_ He huffed, and then he was finally silent. I start paying attention to Luddy again, once I can focus. We're currently walking down a hallway below deck.

"And that to the right is the dining hall, where we eat. We also use it as a sort of rec room before and after meals."

Speaking of meals, I'm hungry. Lovi and I were still too freaked out last night (although Lovi claimed he wasn't scared) to remember to ask for food (we were really _really_ scared since usually we get comforted even by the thought of food), and Ludwig had started the tour this morning without getting us breakfast first. Lovi and I had both lasted much longer without food, but that didn't mean we weren't hungry.

I stop walking, and pull on Ludwig's sleeve to stop him too. "Speaking of food, um… can we have some, I'm really hungry, and food would be nice." Halfway through my sentence Ludwig turns around to look at me, and he looks all stern and angry. I think he's mad at me for interrupting his tour. I quickly started back tracking. "I mean, if that's fine with you. Uhh…. I can also wait until after the tour. I mean I'm really hungry, but… I can wait. I mean…" I probably would have continued talking (Lovi says that I talk too much when I'm scared. He also says I talk too much when I'm nervous, or excited. Actually, Lovi just says I talk too much), but the sound of my own stomach growling cuts me off.

I look back up at Ludwig (I had apparently looked down at some point), and try to figure out what to say so that he wouldn't be angry any more.

Thankfully, Ludwig starts talking before I can, keeping me from saying anything that would make him mad again.

"Oh, ja, of course you can. I already had breakfast before I woke you up, and I completely forgot that you hadn't." That's weird. I was so sure by his facial expression that Ludwig was mad at me, but he obviously isn't. Maybe that was just the way he always looks…? (Lovi said that he looked like he was constipated, but he's just being mean.)

I shrug to myself, hopefully I'll figure it out eventually, and then I follow Ludwig through the door he had just opened, the one he had pointed out as being the dining hall. Food!

* * *

"Wow this is actually really good Luddy! I had always heard that pirate food was really gross, but I could eat this all day!"

"_Yeah, I mean it's not as good as Italian food, but it's alright._" Lovi silently agrees.

"Well our food's not always this good, but Francis cooked this morning, and we just got fresh supplies, so it's at top quality right now. The only time it gets as bad as the stories is if we aren't able to get supplies for whatever reason" Ludwig informs me. I really hope we never get lost at sea; the food would be horrible then!

I quickly finish the plate in front of me, and look up at Ludwig. "Ve, Luddy are we allowed to get seconds?"

Luddy nods at me saying, "Ja, in fact you can get as much as you like. Francis cooked up so much food that probably half of it will go to waste, so don't worry about eating too much."

I smile excitedly and get back up to where food is laid out. I was going to only get a second plate, but Luddy said I could get as much as I want to.

On the way back to the table, I almost drop a few of the plates I had piled up, but thankfully Luddy meet me half way to the table and helps me carry some of them.

"Umm, Lovino…" Wow it was so weird being called that, how does Lovi get used to it?

"Si?" I responded before excitedly digging in to my food. After a few mouthfuls I realize that Luddy hadn't said anything more, and so I look up at him while chewing my food.

"Oh well, I was going to ask if you're sure you could eat that much, but now believe I know the answer." In the time he had spoken, I had almost finished my first plate. I would have responded to his statement, but I decide that my eating sort of spoke for itself in this situation.

Ludwig just watches me as I quickly eat more of my food. He actually looks kind of awed, which is pretty funny.

"_Hell yeah, I can eat that much potato bastard!"_

_ "I'm the one who ate all the food, not you Lovi. And Luddy is not a bastard, he's really nice! Although something about him does scream potato…"_ I'm pretty sure if Lovi had the body right now he would be rolling our eyes or something.

As I was talking with Lovi, I apparently finished up all of the food, because when I look over to grab another of my plates, I see that they are all empty.

"Umm… do you want me to get you some more?" Ludwig asked.

"No that's okay, I've had enough." Lovino and Ludwig both replied at the same time.

"Are you sure? There's plenty."

"_No you have not had enough, I can tell. We're still hungry goddamit. _

I responded to both of them. "No, I'm sure. If I eat any more I'll get sick." (What now!? I was being responsible!) Ludwig nods while Lovi grudgingly agrees. After a few more seconds I stand up, and Ludwig follows my lead.

"I guess I'll finish the tour of the ship now." I nod at him and follow.

* * *

"And that's about it."

"Wow, the ship is so big, it's like a little town. How do you not get lost all the time?" Ludwig just shrugs and tells me he got used to it.

Luddy had just finished giving the tour, and I'm actually a little bit exhausted from all the walking around. The tour had taken awhile, I don't know what time it was, but I can tell it's at least an hour after noon. The two of us (well three if you count me and Lovi as two people) were currently leaning against the rail of the deck.

Ludwig looks over at me, and starts to talk.

"Hey, Lovino." *Sigh* I hate the fact that he keeps calling me that. I know that I'm the one who said that was my name, but being called by it made me feel like I'm not real. I don't get too upset though, I have a feeling he'll learn that there are two of us in here soon enough anyways, we've never been good at hiding it. Then again, once he finds out, he still might not think of me as being real.

"Lovino?" I realize that I spaced out and didn't react the first time he called "my" name. I look at him, and nod to tell him to continue; for once I don't feel like speaking. "I was curious… earlier you were eating like it was the last meal you would ever have, and I was wondering… when was the last time you had eaten before that?"

He looks at me questioningly, and he looks a little bit worried too. "Last night, some nice people gave us dinner and let us stay over." I decided to leave out the fact that we had robbed them as soon as they fell asleep, even though Luddy probably wouldn't care, being a pirate and all.

"And what about before that?" That's a hard one.

"Umm… what day of the week is it today?"

"It's Thursday." I hold out my fingers, and try to figure out the answer to his question.

"Oh, well then, I stole a loaf of bread and some meat Monday morning, so I guess it was then."

Ludwig responded to that statement with a look of horror and anger. Oh, no! I thought that because Luddy was a pirate, he wouldn't mind the thought of stealing but apparently I was wrong! He's obviously really mad that I had stolen something. "_Damn hypocrite."_ Lovi thought, having also thought Ludwig wouldn't mind the fact.

"I'm sorry! Don't be mad at me Ludwig! I was just really hungry, and I couldn't find a job around town, and I hadn't eaten for days, and I couldn't think of any other way to get food, and I was starting to not be able to walk around, and I…"

Ludwig finally cuts off my panicked run on sentence. "I'm not mad at you that you stole." Oh, then why did he look so upset? "It's just… you hadn't eaten for nearly three days?!" Ludwig sounds really upset by that. I count it out on my fingers. Most of Monday (I, actually it was Lovi, had stolen the bread first thing in the morning), all of Tuesday, and most of Wednesday (it was a late dinner).

"Yeah I guess it had been almost three."

"And… and even longer before that?"

"Yeah, I don't know how long it had been that time." With every word I speak, Ludwig looks even more horrified. Now I'm completely confused.

"Lovino, could you take your shirt off for a minute?" Well that's an odd request. I nod and comply though; it's actually really hot out and it'll probably feel a lot cooler without it on. Lovi is yelling at me that this Luddy is going to do something bad, but I ignore his yelling voice; I already trust Ludwig.

Once my shirt is off, I look up at Ludwig to see what he wants me to do. I'm met with a face even more shocked and upset than a few seconds before. He's staring at my now bare chest, and something is obviously wrong.

I look down to see what was wrong with me, but I can't tell anything out of the ordinary. I look back up at Ludwig, who glances away from me when he notices me looking at him.

"Uhh, you can put that back on now." I do so, and then look at him to see if he would explain his odd behavior. "Well… do you want to go down and eat lunch now?" I nod excitedly. If I had known that being a pirate would mean eating well every single day, I would have become one earlier. I then race down to where I (think) I remembered the dining hall being, while Ludwig follows behind, barely keeping up.

* * *

**Luddy's POV**

No wonder Lovino looks like a fourteen year old, he barely ever ate and his malnutrition had probably stunted his growth. When he first started talking about himself going hungry I had hoped that he only recently fell on hard times, but when he took off his shirt, I could easily see every one of his ribs, and his stomach almost looked like it was caved in. I don't know how I didn't notice it earlier when he was shirtless this morning, although I suppose I didn't get a very good look at him. Even so, I should have noticed it; even his face looks extremely gaunt.

I look up and watch him as he practically sprints to the dining hall, I then start to follow behind him. How can a guy in such a bad situation be so happy all the time?

I wonder if that's the reason for the way he was acting this morning. I know that having too little food can make a person act differently; maybe Lovino's malnutrition caused him to be confused.

As for his mood change from how he was last night, he was probably just terrified and was using a harsh front to cover up his emotions. The Lovino/Feliciano thing could also be explained by his fear, his real name was probably Feliciano, but he most likely didn't feel comfortable giving Gil his real name, and used Lovino as a fake one.

I feel a little better once I have figured out Lovino (I decide to just call him that since that was what he apparently wanted to be called, even if it probably wasn't his real name). All his odd behavior could be explained away with logic, which is good since I was becoming convinced earlier that he was at least a little bit insane.

Still, I hate that his life was so bad that he had to use all those methods to cope; I'll have to tell Antonio about them so he can make sure the kid is able to get better somehow.

"Is this the right door Luddy?" Lovino yells, pulling me out of my thoughts. He's standing in front of the door to the dining hall. I was somewhat worried about Lovino getting lost, but apparently the dining hall is one place he will remember the location of.

I nod at him, and then follow him into the room once he walks in. We go to where the food is, and this time, after I grab my own, I also help Lovino carry some of his plates back to a table that is half filled with people.

I set the plates down and then sit down next to Lovino, watching him as he happily stuffs his face. I don't know how, but I love how this kid is able to be so happy even in such a bad situation. Even as he eats, he has a huge smile on his face, and his eyes are lit up in happiness. Despite the gauntness in his face, the happiness covering it actually makes him look kind of beautiful.

Wait! What?

**AN: Dang, I love writing Feli. So anyways, here's the next chapter, where Lovi and Feli's situation is better explained (I hope) and Ludwig is extremely confused (but kind of adorable). Please review to tell me what you thought of this chapter!**

**Also… tomorrow is Halloween! I'm so excited about it; I'm going as Raven from Teen Titans! What about you all, is anyone else trick or treating? (please say yes, it makes me sad when people "grow out" of trick or treating.) **

**Well… bye! Happy Halloween (or for those who don't celebrate Halloween… happy Thursday)!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Toni's POV**

"It was odd; he was acting very kind and happy when I gave him the tour, not at all like you had described him last night. And it wasn't just me, he was acting really nice to everyone we sat with at lunch too. I think he may have only acted like he did yesterday because of how scared he was."

That's so weird, the way Lovi (I just love saying that... Lovi~) was acting last night didn't seem like he was scared; it seemed like his real personality. I mean, he obviously _was_ scared, but I thought he would act that way regardless of the situation. I guess I must have read him wrong or something.

"That _does_ sound weird Ludwig. Did anything else stand out to you about him?"

"Yes actually, I figured out why the kid looks like… well a kid," I nodded at him to continue. That was actually one of the things I was most curious about; I don't get how Lovino could possibly be eighteen, he's so small. "You said earlier he told you he traveled a lot." I nod again. "Well it was more than that. The kid lived on the streets, and he barely ever ate. I think that a lack of nutrition must have stunted his growth."

Oh no! My poor Lovi. I mean, I had known he was skinny, but I hadn't realized he had been starving! That did explain why he was so small though.

"That's awful!" I wail, but then I take a few moments to calm down. "I think I'm going to go talk to him now, do you know where he is?" I ask.

"After lunch we went back up on deck to enjoy the sunlight. I left him up there to come talk to you. I'm pretty sure he's still there."

"Thanks" I respond, and then start to head out the door to my cabin. Before I leave though, I turn around back to Ludwig. "And thanks for telling me what you saw as well. Tell me if you notice anything else about him." Ludwig nods, so I continue on my way to the deck to talk to Lovi. I'm really curious to see this change that Ludwig said he observed. As I walk down the hall, I hear my door shut, and hear footsteps behind me. I have a feeling that Ludwig is going to come above deck with me.

While he was talking to me, I got the idea that he had gotten pretty close to Lovino on the tour. It's actually pretty surprising; Ludwig usually attempts to stay as aloof as possible. I wonder what kind of connection he's made, whether it's merely a friendly one, or more than that. That thought kind of upsets me for some reason, so I decide to push it aside.

When I finally get up on deck, I see a small figure leaning against the far railing. I know that it's Lovino, since there's no one else on the crew who's that small. I was going to go straight up and talk to him, but I decide instead to watch him for a moment. Ludwig walks up next to me and also watches him.

Lovino is leaning over one of the rails, looking at the ocean. I'm pretty sure he's singing or something. I can see his lips moving, but the wind is blowing whatever sound he's making away from me. I'm about to go over and talk to him, when his entire body suddenly goes stiff. A second later, he looks like he's back to normal. He started to lift up his hand… and then he smacked himself across the face.

Well that was… odd, even odder was the smirk that I can tell is now on Lovino's face. After smacking himself, Lovino turns around and leans his back against the railing, and crosses his arms. He starts glancing around the ship, and his eyes linger on me (and probably Ludwig). He then narrows his eyes questioningly, probably wondering why the two of us are watching him.

I decide to just go up and talk to him, since he knew that I was here now.

"Hey Lovi! How has your day been so far?" I ask.

"Idiot bastard! I told you already, Lo-vi-no! And why is _my_ day any of _your_ business?"

I thought Ludwig had said Lovino had gone through some sudden happy transformation. Ludwig must have a real weird view on "happy" or something. I lean over to where he was standing and ask him about it.

"I thought you had said he was acting nice and sweet." I whisper.

"I thought so too" he whispers back.

"You two idiots do know I'm right here right?" Lovi asked sounding irritated. "And yeah I was acting all nice and sweet and idiotic earlier, but that doesn't mean I am now." Apparently my whispering skills need some practice.

"Oh, sorry then." I said to try to calm him down, as he seems to be getting more irritated by the moment.

Lovi rolls his eyes, but seems to calm down a little. "So is there a reason you bastards came over to me, or were you just planning on staring and whispering to each other?"

"Oh." Actually I had just come over to talk, but I had a feeling that my saying that wouldn't make him any happier. "Umm… yeah, I was just going to tell you that your first job on the ship is to clean up the sleeping areas~. You don't have to do it now of course, but you'll have to start by tomorrow. There shouldn't be too much, usually people just clean up their own stuff, but…"

Lovi shrugged. "That's fine." He said back to me. "I don't mind cleaning, as long as you give me plenty of edible food."

I nod, grateful that he isn't going to make a fuss over having to work. I guess it makes sense, since he had agreed to do it last night, but with his personality I really didn't know what to expect.

"Alright then. Also, I'm going to get someone to start teaching you to fight, and how to work other jobs on the ship. Whoever it is will probably teach you after dinner, so you'll do all your cleaning in the mornings and afternoons."

Lovino nods again, and then turns around so that he's facing the ocean. "Sure, whatever. Is there anything else you need?"

"Well I do have one question." Lovino didn't object, so I assume that meant that he's fine with me asking.

"Why'd you smack yourself earlier?" At this Lovino looked away and looked kind of embarrassed. After a few moments of him not responding, I realize that he isn't going to at all, so I drop it.

After a few more moments of watching him, I turn so that I'm also watching the ocean, and lean against the rail. Out of the corner of my eye, I see that Ludwig also did the same thing on the other side of Lovi.

I settle in to where I am, and just stare out at the sea until some questions pop into my mind to ask Lovi.

At first most of my questions are either rejected or ignored, but after a while I figure out what kind of questions I can ask without getting shot down. For example, if I asked anything about his past, I would angrily get called a bastard, but if I asked him about something like food, I actually got an answer. I mean, I still got called a bastard, but the insult was followed by an answer. The entire time I was asking questions, Ludwig just stood silently looking out at the sea.

I can tell he's confused about Lovino's apparent mood change. I have a feeling he's probably upset about it, it seems like he had gotten close to Lovino earlier today, but he obviously hadn't gotten close to this side of Lovino, and he was probably missing the other attitude.

After a while, Ludwig just walks away looking uncomfortable and kind of sad.

For some reason, I'm actually kind of grateful that Lovino isn't acting the way Ludwig had described him. I kind of like the way he's acting now, I can tell that his insults aren't personal, since he obviously hands them out to everyone he meets, and so instead of being offensive they were actually endearing.

It's also kind of cute the way his angry attitude contrasts from his adorable appearance. Although even though his personality wasn't childish like his appearance, it was actually still pretty adorable too, just in a different way.

Honestly, now that I think about it, everything about him was pretty adorable in its own way.

* * *

**Lovino's POV**

I'm surrounded by bastards. To my right is Feli's new best friend, _Luddy_, and to my left is the guy who had been standing in the shadows last night, the one who kept laughing the entire time Gilbert was asking questions. He had introduced himself afterward as Antonio, aka the captain of the _Lucha Tomate_.

"_Lovi, why do you keep calling them mean names? Name one thing they have done to hurt you."_ Feli sounds pretty upset (for him), and it's probably because he had decided that Ludwig was his new favorite person on planet Earth.

_"Well for one thing, they are both members of the pirate crew that _kidnaped_ us and forced us to join them."_

"_True, but are you sure that being 'kidnapped' wasn't the best thing for us. They are going to feed us every day here, and not one person has tried to hurt us so far. Can you really say that about our life _before_ they took us?" _He had me there, but I'm not about to admit it.

"_Plus… well Ludwig's German, and that alone is enough to make _him_ a bastard." _Feli tried to say something at that, but I ignored him. I don't like German's for whatever reason, never have, never will. _"And as for Antonio, well… he hugs too much."_ As soon as he had officially introduced himself to me yesterday, he had given me a 'welcome hug'. Then when on the way to the sleeping quarters, a wave hit the ship and made me trip, and then he gave me a 'feel better hug'. And when I had finally gotten to my hammock he gave me a 'goodnight hug'. Seriously, who gives that many hugs?

"_But Lovi, I like giving people hugs, does that mean I'm a bastard?"_

_"No, you're just an idiot, but that's only because you're my brother. If you weren't related to me then yes, you would be a bastard."_

_"Lovi, that doesn't make any sense."_ I inwardly rolled my eyes at this, of course it makes sense. "_Hey Lovi?"_

_"Yeah Feli?"  
"I'm pretty sure Antonio just asked you another question._

Goddammit. He had been asking me questions for at least the past half hour, and it's really irritating. I had been hoping that he had run out of questions, he had been silent awhile, but he had apparently just been trying to think of something more to ask me.

"Did you say something… idiot?" Wow, I had been so focused on my conversation with Feli that I had almost forgotten to add an insult to the question.

"I asked you if you ever had a girlfriend before."

"Wh-what kind of question is that?!" I practically screech, spinning around to face Antonio. The answer to that question was no, but I would never admit that out loud. What kind of sexy Italian never had a girlfriend before? Someone as suave and cool as me, if the bastard found out that I had never had a girlfriend, he would obviously figure out that there was something different about me. Then he would figure out about my little _issue _with Feli_. How_ _else_ would I have never had a girlfriend?

Okay, well the more I think about it the less sense that made, but… shut up…me.

"Oh sorry, a boyfriend then?"

"What, no, that's not… I didn't say that… I just said that… not that I'm not… I mean I am but… just shut up!" I can feel my face heating up from embarrassment, so I look back down at the water to cover up the fact. It's none of that bastard's business!

"_Why are you getting so flustered? It's not like either of us has never thought about having a boyfriend before." _Feli butts in.

"_Shut up!"_ I respond, apparently incapable of giving any other response.

I look up at Antonio to see that he looks really confused. "I've never been with _anyone_ before, okay" I mutter under my breath.

"Why?" He asks me, apparently having heard my mutter. I shrug and feel my face get even warmer. For some reason, Antonio is staring at me weirdly. I look away from him; his stare is making me kind of uncomfortable, and glance over at where Ludwig had been standing. He had apparently left while I was arguing with Feli; he had probably gotten board standing there not talking.

After a few moments, I look back at Antonio to see if he's still looking at me weirdly; he is. If anything his gaze had gotten even stranger. "What _is _it bastard?"

"You're just so cute Lovi!"

Wait what…? Does he mean…? Is he saying that he…? He probably just…

"Wh-what?!"

"You're just so adorable!" Oh _adorable_ cute, I had forgotten that at first glance I always looked like a little kid.

"Yeah, yeah. I know, I look like I'm twelve" I don't know why I expected anything else.

"No not like that, honestly now that I've actually seen you in good lighting, you don't look like a little kid at all." I guess he's finally realized that just because I'm short, thin, and have no muscles doesn't mean I'm a little kid.

But wait, then why was he calling me adorable? "If you don't think I look like a little kid, then why…"

"Because, whenever you blush your face gets so red, like a little tomato! And tomatoes are super adorable, so therefor you are adorable by association."

"What the hell did you just say?" My face definitely does not get even redder at that.

"_Of course it did silly. What are you talking about?"_

"I said your face looked like a tomato and that…"

"Sh-shut up!" I muttered to both of them, before stalking to the dining hall (What? It's the only place I remember the location of!) to get away from them (and yes I knew Feli will come with me, but it was the idea of it dammit).

I was interrupted from my very dramatic exit by a pair of strong arms wrapping around me and pulling me into a hug. "So cute~"

"Get the hell off of me!" After some struggling (like I said they were a pretty strong pair of arms) I manage to get out of his embrace (and _no_ Feli he did not let me get free), and then continue to stalk off, although I'm pretty sure all the dramaticness of my exit had been ruined at this point.

Damn you Antonio.

* * *

**AN: So there you are! Thank you for all the people who reviewed last chapter, I love reading what you all have to say! I hope everyone had a Happy Halloween whether or not they went trick or treating. I know I did!**

**Also, I'm like super happy today because 1) todays the first day of practice for this show I'm in, and 2)Tommorow is FINNALLY Hetalia day where I live (the park had some big thingy going on last week)(I'm going as Spain). I'm really excited, since this is my first Hetalia day (or even the first time I've done anything with cosplay in public), and am wondering if anyone else went to/ is going to Hetalia day this year. I'd love to hear any stories, or tips to have as much fun as possible!**

**So yeah! Please review and follow and favorite and whatnot, and most importantly- have an awesome weekend!**


	6. Chapter 6

**AN: Thanks so much for reviewing, especially "Spamano4ever" and "Axis Powers Hetalia" who have both reviewed a ton (I love yall)! Also thank you for following and favoriting! Please continue to do all three (Especially reviewing. You should review. Reviewing is cool. All the cool kids do it.), Also, since I don't really like either this chapter or the next (and they're both fairly short), I'll post both today so I can get them out of the way. So… read on, and then review afterwards.**

* * *

**Lovi's POV **

One down, one to go. I had just finished cleaning up the first of the two sleeping areas, and am currently headed to the second one. The first actually wasn't as messy as I had feared, probably because it was the one that Ludwig had decided to be in charge of (as first mate he had his own cabin but apparently keeping that clean wasn't enough work for him). According to what Gilbert (who I could stand slightly better than his brother despite his Germanness) had said at breakfast this morning, Ludwig had some kind of obsessive cleaning thing. Normally I would find that annoying, but it makes my job easier so I'm not going to complain…much.

Because of Ludwig's cleaning habits, I had only had to spend about fifteen minutes cleaning up the room, but from what I had heard, it would take me a significantly longer time to clean up the other. I'm not really looking forward to that; cleaning is so boring, but right now it's the job I have to do, and I'm kind of scared that if I don't pull my weight, someone will try to throw me overboard or something.

I reach the door to the second sleeping area, and begin to try to open it with my foot since my hands were filled with rags, a broom, a mop, and a bucket of water. Unfortunately, the door is not one that was easily opened with one foot, so I'm stuck trying to think of what to do.

"_Why don't you just set down some of the stuff so you can open it with your hands?"_

"_Feli, that's stupid."_

Truthfully, I was just about to do just that before he suggested it, but now that he had there's no way I'll do it, it would just go to his head. Instead I choose to lean down and bite the door handle, twisting it by turning my head sideways and then pushing it in. Once I can tell it's open, I stand up straight again (obviously after letting go of the door handle) and push the door the rest of the way open with my knee. I walk in and set all my cleaning supplies against the wall.

The first thing that I notice after I first walk into the door is that the others had not been joking when they had said that this room was a lot messier than the other. The floors were absolutely disgusting (how do you even get this much dirt onto a _ship_?), and blankets and random junk are scattered everywhere around the room. The only thing that I was thankful for was that the room was almost all the way empty of people, so I won't have to worry about bumping into anyone while cleaning. The only person in the room is in the far corner, and he had his back to me, obviously not having heard me come in.

The guy was tallish (he's huge compared to me, but that really isn't anything to go by since everyone is), and blond. I can tell he has just woken up, because his shoulder length hair looks very messy, and he's in nothing but the shorts he had probably slept in. I have a feeling this is one of the people who had taken a late watch last night. There were a couple of them in the other cabin I had cleaned who were also still asleep or just getting up.

I decide to just ignore him and start working, the sooner I can clean the sooner I can get out of here and relax. I start by throwing blankets onto hammocks so I can sweep up the floor without them getting in my way. I'm grateful that all I have to do to clean the main sleeping areas is mop, sweep, dust, and put blankets back on hammocks, so I don't have to worry about organizing any of the craziness (apparently people don't want their stuff messed with).

Once I get all of the blankets off the floor (I would actually tidy them up later), I go to grab the broom from where I had left it. Unfortunately, I end up tripping over a blanket that I hadn't noticed before, and I fall to the ground making a loud crashing sound.

Out of the corner of my eye, I can see the blond jump, having only just realized I'm in here. I start to get up, but before I can he comes running (actually it's more like prancing) over to me and sticks out a hand to help me up. Unfortunately, I had just sat up, so his hand collided with my head causing me to fall back over again. Bastard.

I rub my forehead then look up to glare at whoever this guy is.

"Oh I am so sorry _mon ami_ are you all right?"

Oh crap a Frenchie!

"Are you alright _mon cher_? You look very pale. _Mon ami?"_

* * *

A few moments later, I'm standing upright sweeping, and the creepy-evil-goingtosexuallyharassme-Frenchman is nowhere to be seen. I tried to turn around to look for him, but I couldn't move my head. When did Feli get in charge?

_"Feli, why are you in charge, and what happened to the pervert?"_

_"Ooh~ Lovi you're back!"_ Well no shit Sherlock. If I wasn't back, I wouldn't be talking now would I? "_Umm well, once you realized that guy was French you passed out or something, so I ended up with the body. And he's not a pervert, he's really nice!"_

_"Sure he is."_ I reply sarcastically. Of course he's a pervert, he's French! … Okay so maybe that's stereotyping just a little bit. I guess I probably _should_ give him the benefit of the doubt, after all he hasn't done anything so far to prove to me he was perverted, and I was a pretty accepting guy (except for with Germans, just…no).

"…_well anyways, once he helped me up, we talked for a while, and then he got dressed and left. His name is Francis by the way. He was really nice when he was helping me up, he held me really tightly so I wouldn't fall down. And then he was really helpful, and told me that it would be a lot easier to clean without a shirt on, something about having more freedom moving my arms."_ I realize after he says that that we were currently shirtless. "_Really soon after that, he left. He kind of looked a little sad when he did though. I wonder why he looked upset…"_

All right, I take back my decision to try to be accepting, my first impression of the guy was completely right. Why else would he convince Feli to take off his shirt? Plus, when Feli was talking about him holding him really tightly, he also showed me the memory, and it was obvious by the position of Francis' hands that he was feeling Feli up as much as he was helping him out.

At least he had the decency to feel bad once he had seen our body without a shirt on. Feli might be oblivious to how skinny we were, but I knew full well that we were unhealthily thin. Feli showed me the memory of Francis's face as he was leaving, and it was full of pity, proving my guess. I may not like the guy, but at least he had emotions… he was still a perverted bastard though.

Whatever, I guess I'll just have to punch the guy for taking advantage of my brother's idiocy another time when I'm back in charge. Worrying about it won't do me any good since I can't actually do anything right now. I mentally shrug for Feli's benefit, acting as if I don't know why he was upset, and settle in patiently for a long day of cleaning.

* * *

"_Feli, hurry up already, I want lunch!"_

_"I know, I know, you've been saying that to me every five minutes since you woke up! I'm going as quickly as I can. Stop yelling at me!"_

_"I'll stop yelling when you finish cleaning."_

_"I'm sorry! There's a lot of cleaning to do, and this broom is heavy, and you keep yelling at me, and the room smells bad, and I'm hungry, and my head still hurts from falling and…"_

"_About time Feli, I was about to starve!"_ Of course that wasn't true, in fact I had barely even felt hungry at all compared to the past, put it was the principle of the thing! There was food to be had and I haven't eaten it yet.

"_Ve! Calm down, fratello!"_ After saying that, Feli starts to speed up, partially to appease me and partially because of the fact that he wants food just as badly as I do.

Finally, after a long walk, we arrive at the dining hall. When we walk in the door, we can see how crowded it is; nearly the entire crew is in here.

Feli looks around, trying to decide where to sit. He sees Ludwig sitting with some others in a far corner, and decides to go over there to sit with him. Dammit Feli! Why couldn't you have sat with anyone else?

Once Feli sits down, we look around to see who else is at the table. Ludwig is to our left, and Gilbert is straight in front of us. On one side of him (across from Ludwig) is some blond guy I've never seen before, and on the other is the pervert from earlier. We start to turn our head to see who is to our right, but before we can, we are pulled into a huge hug. So that's who it is.

If I were in charge, I would have punched Antonio by now, or at least pushed him off of me. Unfortunately, I'm not calling the shots, which means that Feli hugs him back instead.

After a few moments, it is Antonio who breaks the hug, and he seems kind of sad, almost like he didn't want to be hugged back. Why would he hug someone then be sad when they hug him back? Idiot.

"So Lovi, how's it going with the cleaning?" Dammit, I thought I told him it was Lovino, is he trying to get hit?

"Oh, it's going good. I'm actually finished with both of the rooms." From what I can tell, everyone seems shocked, apparently we had cleaned faster than they had expected. The only person didn't react to the statement was Antonio, who is just looking down and frowning slightly. I don't like that; Antonio shouldn't be frowning.

Not that I care or anything. It's just that he's the one who gives us our work, if he's in a bad mood, we might get more work or something.

Either way, after a few seconds, so few that I doubt anyone else even noticed Antonio's mood change, there is a smile back on his face again.

"Oh that's great. If you're up to it then, you can start your training after lunch instead of dinner; you can probably use all the practice you can get." Of course we're not up to it; we want to take a nap dammit.

"Ve~. Sure that sounds like fun!"

"_Why would you say that fratello? I wanted to sleep until dinner."_

_"Don't yell at me! And anyways, I thought it sounded like fun!_

Whatever. I guess I'm training now.

"So who are we…am I training with?" Feli asks (as always he has trouble with the whole singular vs. plural thing). He looks around at everyone excitedly, as if he'll know who it is just by glancing at them.

"Well, I'm usually the one in charge of training." Of all the people to get trained by, it naturally has to be the biggest bastard of them all, Ludwig.

"And I'll be helping out too!" Not only the big bastard, but the annoying bastard too! Joy.

I have a feeling this is going to be a long day. Even worse, tomorrow will probably be just as annoying. And the next day too.

I'm not sure if I'll be able to stand training with these two, I'm starting to wonder if death would have been the better choice after all.


	7. Chapter 7

**AN: Okay, so this is pretty much the 'time passing filler chapter thingy that also slightly adds to peoples relationships… thingy'. I originally didn't have anything here, but I felt like I had moved too fast without it, so… enjoy. And follow, favorite and REVIEW of course.**

* * *

**Training-**** Ludwig's POV**

"Lift your arm up Lovino! You can't possibly fight off an enemy if you can't lift up your sword!"

"Ve! But it's so heavy!" What does 've' even mean anyway?

"That's why we're training. Anyways, it wouldn't work right if it were any lighter.

"I know. It's just that my arms hurt!" I actually feel a little bad for Lovino, but he's never going to get stronger if he doesn't work for it.

I try to think of something that will motivate him to work harder. "Uh, if you work hard today, I'll try to convince Francis to cook something of your choosing tomorrow for dinner."

At my words, Lovino's eyes widen, and it looks like he's about to cry. What did I say to upset him? Right when I'm about to go over there to him and try to comfort him (he likes hugs right?), his face brakes into one of the biggest smiles I've ever seen.

"C-can he make pasta?" his voice sounds so full of hope.

"Uhh, yeah, he has before." Apparently his eyes weren't as big as they could go, because they grow even larger at my words.

"Ve, really?" I nod, and he starts to run over to me, probably to hug me, but then a look crosses his face and he stops and turns back to where the sword is laying on the ground.

He then picks up the sword with one hand as if it weighed nothing, then turns to look at me. "I'd better work hard then."

Well I guess I learned how to make Lovino train.

* * *

**Lunch-**** Antonio's POV**

"Lovi, what are you concentrating so hard on?" Lovino whips his head around from where he had been looking into space to glare at me, he narrows his eyes at the fact that I called him Lovi, but otherwise let me be.

That's weird; I hope he's not feeling bad today; usually he would at least correct me.

He looks away and shrugs. "Just trying to come up with nicknames for all of you idiots." He must be in a really bad mood; if he wasn't he would have called us bastards.

"I've already named Ludwig the Potato, and Gilbert the Albino Potato, but I'm at a loss for everyone else." I can tell that what he said isn't actually what's bugging him.

What can I do to make him happy? Ooh, I know! I can use my great-aunt's super-secret magical cheer up charm!

I tap Lovi's shoulder, and when he looks at me, I begin.

"Fusosososo~ Fusosososo~ Fusosososo!" Lovino looks at me incredulously, gives a small (so small I almost don't notice) confused smile, then gets up and walks off, after smacking the back of my head of course.

My magical cheer up charm always works.

* * *

**Birdie-**** Mathew's POV**

"Are you sure you want to go up there? Just yesterday you were freaking out about being scared of heights, and now you suddenly want to climb up into the crow's nest!" I don't get what's up with this kid.

"What, can't I change my mind? I want to climb now! Just get out of the way…"

"Mathew."

"Yeah just get out of the way, um… Mathew.

"Alright go ahead, but be careful."

"Whatever" He starts climbing, and honestly he seems like a natural. Before I know what's happening, he's already at the top, staring out at the ocean. I should get Gil to see this, he looks more comfortable and "birdlike" then even I do. Maybe he could start calling Lovino birdie instead of me…

"Ve! Help me, help me, I'm scared of heights." I look up, and Lovi suddenly looks less like a bird in his nest, and more like a fish out of water. What is up with this kid? Whatever it is, he's going to need some help getting down. I sigh and begin the climb up.

So much for losing that nickname.

* * *

**Bugging Lovi-**** Francis' POV**

"Hey Lovi!" Gil and I shout in unison.

"It's Lo-vi-no! Stop slaughtering my name Albino Potato and Pervert." Great! He's in a bad mood! He's no fun when he's all happy and ditsy. I hear Gil "laughing" from beside me and I can tell he agrees; in his words, "Angry Lovino is so much more awesome than happy Lovino." I look over at Gil and he nods, telling me to start.

"Oh _mon cher_, don't be like that. You know you love me, _non_?" I say while walking up to Lovi and wrapping my arms around him.

"_N-non" _he angrily stutters while pushing me off.

"You sound way less awesome than Francis does in that language! It does kind of fit you though!"

"I wasn't speaking- I didn't-" he stops then, realizing that he did indeed speak in French. A few days ago, Lovino had claimed that French was the second worst language, after German (Gil and I flipped a coin over what language we would work on first and I won), and swore that he would never speak it. "You bastards made me speak French!" he yells, and Gil and I start running; an angry Lovino was funny but dangerous.

Unfortunately I'm not quick enough to avoid getting hit in the back by whatever projectile Lovino threw at me, but it was still worth it.

Lovino is so cute when he was mad. If Antonio hadn't told Gil and I (and half the crew) to not make a move on him, we probably both would have by now.

I could definitely see what had Antonio falling so hard for the kid (although neither of them could see it), and if the two of them didn't end up getting together… well I'm always free.

_Thunk_! Apparently I had paused too long to think, allowing Lovino to catch up to me. Okay run now, think later.

"_Au Revoir"_ I yell back then sprint away.

* * *

**Birthday Party-**** Ludwig's POV**

"And I was all, 'don't kill me I'm a virgin', and he was just glaring at me! It was really scary, but now Gilbert is my friend, although he's still a little scary sometimes. Like if you forget What's-His-Face's name, or when he's fighting like he was a few days ago. Remember that fight? I was there, and you were there, and you guys took some stuff from that merchant ship. I wonder if they had pasta on the ship. Wait, did you steal those people's pasta? If so that was too cruel. You don't just…"

Apparently Lovino talks _even more than usual_ with alcohol in him (his Italian accent was thicker too). I didn't even think that was possible.

"Another toast for the birthday boy!" Gilbert shouts, smirking at me. I glare at him; Lovino _really _doesn't need any more beer.

I almost stop Lovino from drinking, but just shrug and take a large gulp of my own instead. The sooner he passes out, the sooner I can get him out of here.

One thing I learned about Lovino tonight, he was truly a lightweight. He had drunk less than I had, and although I'm only just the littlest bit tipsy, he is already full out drunk.

…

…

…

He actually lasted another entire half hour before passing out; that really surprised me.

However, he did pass out, and so I'm now carrying him back to his hammock, since I'm the only one sober enough to do so (even though I had drunk twice what most of the others had).

I admit, I'm having some trouble carrying him, not because of his weight, or my alcohol intake, but because I have had a bit of a crush on the guy (alright so maybe more than a bit of a crush), and my embarrassment from carrying him bridal style was a bit too much.

"Hey, Luddy, I just realized something!" I look sown and see his eyes are just barely open. His words are so slurred I can barely understand them, but they still spark my interest.

"What's that?" I ask curiously.

"I can't tell you, it's a secret." He mutters giggling. After a few more seconds of giggling, he passes out again.

I wonder what he had to say. I'll have to ask him in the morning, although he's so drunk I doubt he'll remember whatever it is.

I finally get to the room where he sleeps, and place him in his hammock (after a little bit of trouble opening the door with only my foot). I watch him lie in his bed for a moment to assure myself he's really asleep, before leaning over and giving him a slight kiss on the forehead. Afterwards, I quickly turn and walk away blushing.

As I close the door, I think I hear a faint giggle, but I decide I must have just imagined it.

I head back to the dining hall; I don't have to stop drinking just because the birthday boy went to sleep.

* * *

**Hung-over-**** Antonio's POV**

"Never let me drink that much again." Lovino groans to me the morning after his party. He sounds awful, I feel really bad for him because of the headache I'm sure he has.

"You weren't even sitting with me last night!" Lovi had sat with Ludwig almost the entire night.

"Never let me drink that much again." He repeats.

"But you were having so much fun…"

Lovino raises an eyebrow and cuts me off, "Do I need to say it a third time?"

"I will never let you drink that much again!" I say after Lovino glares at me for a while.

"Uhh, thanks Toni" he said to me, attempting to smile but mostly failing because of his hangover. At that, a huge smile grew onto my face. Sure I had seen Lovi smile before, but nor when he was really… Lovi, only when he was super happy Lovi. This was different, it felt more important somehow, even if it was only part of a smile.

I lunge over and give Lovi a huge hug, and he doesn't push me away. Aww… does this mean that he's back to happy Lovino?

"I'm only letting you hug me right now because it would hurt my head too much to beat you up." Yay it's still him.

"I love you Lovi" I whisper over his shoulder, so quietly _I_ barely hear it.

"What did you say?" It's good he didn't hear me; I don't really want to get attacked.

"I didn't say anything."

"Oh I guess I must have been hearing things. Now will you get off me?!"

Yep, that's my Lovi~!


	8. Chapter 8

**AN: Thanks so much everyone who reviewed. Please keep reviewing, and follow and or favorite if you haven't already *puppy dog face* Alright, so some more serious stuff now. I decided to do these as journal entries because I feel like there is no way certain people *cough*Lovino*cough* would ever admit some of these things any other way. So yeah… read on, hope you like some angstyness.**

* * *

Dear Diary Journal,

Hey, Lovino here, writing in my very manly journal. So anyway, I don't really know why I'm doing this, but Feli and I agreed it was a good idea, and I might as well go along with it. So anyways… first off- rules of the journal that Feli and I agree on

I'm writing this in Italian plus a little code; so that no one on the ship can read it (Feli and I are the only ones who speak Italian). Feli has a different code, so he can't read mine and I can't read his.

We only write in this if the other is "giving privacy". Basically retreating into his mind so that the other can actually be alone (huh, bet you didn't know we could do that did you? Then again, bet you don't even know what I'm talking about… since you're a journal…).

We never read what the other writes, even if we do manage to crack each other's codes, this is the one place we don't share.

No lying to the journal.

So yeah, four rules, I should probably write them in the front if the book or something… dammit now I have to write that whole thing again!

Anyways so… I guess I'm supposed to write about my feelings or some shit like that… like that's going to happen.

Alright… so it's been about four months since joining the ship, and I guess things are going well. Now that we've been training for a while (training sucks by the way) we're finally working normal jobs around the ship instead of cleaning (we still have to keep on training to fight though). The other jobs we have to do are a lot less boring than cleaning, but they also require more energy. I like working the crow's nest, because of how much I can see up there, but Feli's scared of height so I don't get to go up there much.

So, I'm nineteen now. Our birthday, March 17, was exactly three weeks after we joined the crew. We didn't tell anyone about it until three days after it (we didn't think it was important), so we ended up with a late birthday party. It was actually kind of fun, although Feli was in charge for it (the only bad thing was that he got really drunk, and then left me to deal with the hangover the next morning). Other than that though, things have been pretty calm (our ship has attacked two ships, but nobody on either side was killed or seriously injured, so I guess that counts as calm).

So anyway, so far no one has figured out our secret yet, although I'm pretty sure a lot of people think something is wrong with Feli and me. Thankfully, they think we're just moody, happy one second and angry the next.

This is the longest time we've been around the some people since- well I guess since we were normal. It's been… hard. Not to convince them we're one person, people don't have any reason to believe anything else, and so they don't. No, it's been hard on me personally.

I see the way they look at me when I'm calling the shots. They think I'm just Feli in a bad mood. They all try to avoid me until Feli's back, then they go back to loving him. It makes me feel …unwanted- and I guess I am. Everyone would be a lot happier if it were just Feli, especially Feli. I don't know how he turned out so great, with me always there yelling and insulting him. He would be so much happier without me…

Lately I've noticed that Feli and Ludwig (I've started calling him Potato/the Potato after watching him eat those disgusting things every meal he could) have been getting a lot closer. Sometimes I feel like Ludwig is closer to Feli now than I am, I guess I'm kind of jealous (Curse you rule four), but I'm also happy for Feli (though I'd never tell him that).Even if I can't be happy, he should be. As far as I can tell he is so that's good.

Honestly, most days have just started to just run by in a blur; the same thing happens every time someone talks to me. They'll greet me or something, and then wait for response. Once they realize I'm… me, they almost always come up with an excuse to leave.

By this point, nearly everyone has faded into the monotonous blur most of the time. Even though they are all different, they are all the same to me. All wishing I could be gone, that they person they call Lovino would be Feliciano all the time. As the days go by, the blur gets stronger, although I pretend it's not there for Feli's sake, I wouldn't want him to worry.

Although honestly, even Feli is starting to blur some days.

There is only one person who always stands out from the blur, who makes the world kind of interesting, and that is Antonio

Antonio never leaves me once he discovers that it's me. In fact, it seems like he's happier when it is me. Of course, he's always nice to Feli, but I've noticed lately that the only time he hugs us, or acts overly affectionate, is when I'm in charge of the body. It's… nice. Normally I get out of his hugs as quickly as I can and then punch/kick/head-butt him once I do, but honestly… I think his hugs- his affection- are the only things keeping me here, keeping me sane.

I think he might even… have feelings for me, me personally. And I… I think I might have those feelings too.

Antonio is so… honestly the only word I can think of is perfect. He's so loud and happy all the time, and even though it's incredibly annoying, it's also… nice. He never seems to react to my insults or my anger, but it's not in an oblivious way, although it seems like it at first. It's as if he knows that insulting people is just what I do, and that the insults don't mean anything. If he does know that, then I'm impressed, even Feli hasn't figured that out yet. Antonio is also; well beautiful is the only word for it. Not to say he's not masculine, he is, it's just that there's no other word strong enough to describe him. And it's not just the way his body looks either (although like I said, that is nice), but the way it moves also. He walks with confidence, and his happiness can be seen with every step he takes. And there's more, it's…

It's everything; I love every single thing about him.

…

… You weren't expecting that were you? ...Neither was I actually. I wasn't thinking about what I was writing, and then all of a sudden that is on the paper.

Do I love Antonio? According to… myself I do. I… this isn't how I thought being in love would feel. There are no butterflies in my stomach, no racing heart, but…

It feels right, I can almost see it. Antonio and I and… Feli.

This is wrong. It couldn't work out. Feli had to be the one to…

You know what; I don't want to write about that part of the curse right now. I know what it is, and I know how it will end, there's no point in thinking too hard about it.

It wouldn't work between Antonio and me, even if he did somehow fall for me. It would only cause him heartbreak. Only make it harder for me.

I just have to push him away even further. Make my insults worse, so that they hurt him. It… it's for the best. It shouldn't be hard. I'm sure, after a couple of days he'll treat me the same way everyone else does, and then I'll have…

No one

No one at all who will care about me other than Feli. It will hurt; it will take away the last bit of happiness I have left.

But in the end, it's what's best. I know it is, there's no question about it. But I wish it wasn't.

… Lovino out.

* * *

_Dear Diary,_

Hi piece of paper, it Feliciano here, but most people call me Feli. Lovino, that's my twin brother, and I decided to start a journal. Thankfully, Lovi already wrote down the rules, so I don't have to. Yay!

So anyways… I don't know what to write.

Umm… well I'm a pirate- well kind of… I'm still training.

Oh yeah, training, I should talk about training… training is hard. Luddy is really tough, and Toni is too. I actually appreciate it though. I feel stronger than I used to, and now when I take off my shirt on hot days, people don't look so sad. Lovi explained to me that it's because we now have meat and muscle instead of skin and bones. He said that part of that is because of training, along with all the food we've been eating. Whatever the reason, I'm happy because I don't like people being sad.

So what else has happened? Ooh Lovi and I had a fun birthday party. It was our first one since we were little. It was fun but I learned that I get drunk really easily. It was actually kind of nice, but Lovi's annoyance the next morning (plus the hangover that I actually did feel too) wasn't, so I decided to not drink too much anymore.

Umm… that's all I can really think of. Umm… I don't know what to write, um… oh I know, Lovi said to write about my feelings. Alright then.

Happy. Most of the time I'm pretty happy.

Tired. I'm always really tired after training. I'm not sure if that really counts as an emotion though…

Erm… sad? I don't really like thinking about that emotion, I usually just ignore it, but I guess I'm supposed to write all of my emotions so…

One thing that makes me sad is how everyone calls me Lovino. I know it shouldn't bug me, but it still does. Sometimes it makes me feel like I'm not really here. Sometimes I think that I'm not. What if… what if Lovi and I really are just crazy? I remember being changed by… but what if we… what if we just made that up?

And if we did, who's real, Lovino or Feliciano? What if I… what if I don't exist. What if I never did?

No! Bad thoughts, bad thoughts! I remember life before Lovi and I were bound together; I must have been my own person once. But still…

All right, no more thinking about that. Wondering won't help me. I guess I might as well keep writing though, that way I can get all the bad things out of the way and stop worrying about them.

So… other sad things.

Well… everyone here treats me like an idiot. I know I'm not, but I also know that I act like it.

I just… I've been through a lot and… it's easier to be happy and completely oblivious. It's how I get through it all, plus it's just who I am. People don't know that though, they treat me like I'm just plain stupid. Even Lovi does, and he knows me better than anyone.

Not only do they think I'm an idiot, but they put on smiles and act like I'm their best friend. I wish they would tell me how they feel. Because of people's pity, I can't tell when someone actually likes me, and when they just feel bad for me.

I keep smiling though. I don't want anyone to know, they'd just feel even worse for me, and there would be even more pity and then… I'd be even worse off than when I started.

I just wish people would tell me how they feel about me, so I could know how to improve. Of course I would still stay me, but I think it is a good thing to know your own faults.

I think that's why I like Luddy so much. He tells me how he feels; he's not afraid to call me an idiot, but he only does so when I'm being idiotic. He keeps me grounded. Sometimes I feel like without Ludwig, I'd just float away.

That's not all I like about Luddy, he's strong, and brave, and handsome. He's surprisingly shy, and yet he pushes past that and said what he needs to. I could probably write a journal entry twice this long about all the great things that make up Ludwig (maybe I will sometime).

The most important thing about Ludwig is… I've been in love with him practically since I met him. I didn't recognize it at first of course (I think I realized it as he was carrying me to my hammock after that party. Drunken minds are sometimes surprisingly intelligent in their straightforwardness).

If Ludwig's constant blush that shows up every time I hug him, and the way he acted the night of my birthday party (I was only pretending to be passed out… the second time) are anything to go by, I think I have a chance of him loving me too.

And recently, I've decided to try out a relationship with Luddy. I know it will hurt both of us after… well you know… but I've decided, I'm going to live every day to its fullest.

I've decided to live in the moment. It might hurt at the end of the day, but I can deal with that when I get to it. Luddy's strong so he can too, although I do feel bad for the pain that I will probably end up causing him.

I wish Lovino would follow my policy on life.

So yeah, it's all happiness from here until the end… the end. I don't like thinking about the end…

Happy, happy, happy! Stay happy Feli!

Alright so from here on out, it's all happy~. Wow I'm glad I wrote all this stuff down, it really helped me think things through. Thanks diary! Now I know to try out a relationship with Luddy, although I'll take it slowly; I don't want to scare him off. And I definitely have to be careful in case he doesn't love me back, that way we can still be friends if it doesn't work out.

Wow this diary is good! I don't really have anything else to write so…

Goodnight Diary! _Love Feliciano_.


	9. Chapter 9

**Thanks for reviewing and whatnot.****_ I LOVE YOU!_****... ahem, anyways… I decided to make a kind of funny/awkward chapter to make up for all the angstyness in the last one. I really enjoyed writing this one, and probably had too much fun with it. Sooo… on to the story.**

* * *

**Third Person POV**

Antonio walked up behind where the grumpy Italian was standing, working up his nerve.

"Hey Lovino," Antonio "I have something I need to say"

"Well say it then bastard, no need to take all day."

"Lovino, I love you." With that Antonio pulled Lovino in for a short sweet kiss, before pulling back to gage the other man's reaction.

"I love you too Antonio!" The man said with as much vigor as he could put into the words before pulling Antonio into a much longer and less innocent kiss. As the kiss continued it became deeper and wilder.

* * *

**Antonio's POV**

When I had come to wake Lovi up this morning (I was going to get him to do some early morning training) I had definitely not expected to see him in the situation he was currently in.

"Antonio" he panted, for about the millionth time. This was… enough to make anyone (except maybe Francis) feel awkward. I really wanted to wake him up, but I was just too uncomfortable. Once I woke him up, he would realize that I had overheard at least part of his dream; how else would I be able to explain the fact that my face is currently as red as the tomatoes I so often compare Lovi to?

That and, he seemed like he was having a… nice dream. I would feel kind of bad waking him up…

Of course, I wouldn't have been in such a bad situation, if I hadn't heard the words that had made me freeze up. I would have just ignored the situation, maybe not even realized who it was about, maybe not even realizing anything at all, and woken Lovi up before I could get as embarrassed as I currently am.

When I had first walked into the room and heard him murmur "I love you too Antonio!" I had for a moment thought he was awake, and I have to admit; the thought made me extremely happy. Once I realized he was asleep, my happiness was only just barely diminished, if he was dreaming about saying those things, then he must have at least some feelings for me when he was awake.

And I, well it was no secret I had a thing for Lovi, actually it was more than a _thing_, I'm pretty sure it was love (although strangely enough I only ever really felt that love when he was his grumpy self, his happy self seems like an entirely different person). Up until now, I was 95% sure that love was unreciprocated, but now… maybe I had a chance.

Although, first things first, I have to get myself out of this situation. As happy as I am that Lovino may have feelings for me, I really want this awkward moment to be over.

Eventually, I (try to) pull myself together, and I then walk over to Lovino's hammock. After another moment, I start to shake his arm to wake him up. After a few seconds, Lovino shoots up into a sitting position. His eyes are wild, and he's still panting. After almost a full minute, he seems to calm down, until he looks up to see who had woken him.

Once he sees me, his eyes widen and his face turned bright(er) red. He jumps out of bed, squeaks out something, and runs out of the room, barely having time to grab a shirt and a pair of pants from where they are hanging above his hammock (definitely not having time to put them on over his boxers).

Well… that could have gone much better… Oh well, at least I know my Lovi has feelings for me. Now I'm off to tell Francis and Gil all about it, they'll be so happy for me!

… Actually on second thought, I value my life too much to tell anyone about this, even if Lovi does love me (Gosh I love thinking those words, Lovi loves me, Lovi loves me, Lovi loves me, Lov- stop getting so distracted Toni!) he won't hesitate to (attempt to) murder me if I tell anyone about this little moment.

* * *

**Feli's POV**

_The field was amazing, with every color flower that I could imagine. Not only was the _field_ beautiful, but so was the scene that was happening in it._

_There I was (hi me!) picking flowers, and handing them to Ludwig, who was braiding them into a flower crown (who would have thought that Luddy could look so absolutely adorable). Lovino was also there, and he was in a different body from other me! He was actually almost smiling, talking to Antonio about something (I couldn't hear any sound coming from any of us)._

_When I looked back from Lovi (I love seeing him so happy~) to the other me I noticed something was going on. Other me was on his tiptoes, and Luddy was bending over slightly. Our lips were about to meet (I was mentally squealing with happiness), when…_

I feel my arm being shaken, and am unwillingly brought from my sleep. The first thing I notice is that I'm not even in control of the body, come on if I can't even do anything, why can't I stay in my nice dream?

The next thing I notice is that I, Lovi actually, is… panting. What's going on? I can feel heat running through my body (I know that it's really running through Lovi's, but I still have to feel it) in a not completely unpleasant way.

Not only does the person in charge of the body control what we say and do, he also controls some of our emotions and urges. After all, although our emotions are simply in our brain, they can also physically affect the body.

Meaning I am in the exact same… predicament as Lovi is right now.

When Lovi finally calms himself down enough to look up, we see Antonio (who I'm 90% sure unintentionally had something to do with our current situation) looking down on him, looking just as embarrassed as we do right now.

"Chigi!" Lovino squeaks, and he then runs us out of the room in nothing but underwear. Thankfully, he remembers to grab some clothes on the way out.

As Lovi runs down the hall he's obviously too freaked out (aka embarrassed) to notice anything, but I'm fully aware of all the strange looks we're getting sprinting down the hallway in nothing but our boxers. After a while, Lovi manages to find a small supply closet to run into (we knew where it was from our days cleaning). Once he gets us inside, he begins to use the buckets and other heavy cleaning supplies to barricade the door shut, as the door has no lock.

After he finishes blocking the door, he sits down in the corner of the small room, leaning his head against the wall and closing our eyes.

After a few seconds of just sitting there, obviously attempting to calm down, he begins to talk to me. "_Feli?"_

_"Yes" _I respond.

"_We're not coming out of here until you're in charge, got it?"_

"_Of course."_ I had been expecting that, based on the events that had happened so far today. "_Do you want to talk about it?"_

_"No"_ I had been expecting that too, although I had not expected the memory that came with the statement. Apparently Lovi was having trouble controlling his emotions, as a snippet of the dream he had was forced into my mind. If I could have, I would have been blushing like crazy; Lovi had _definitely_ been having a different kind of dream than I had.

"_Sorry!"_ Lovi exclaimed as soon as he figured out the source of my discomfort (Wow Lovi apologized? He must be really embarrassed!). I let out a small (mental) giggle at that; the situation was incredibly awkward, but it was funny to see Lovi so embarrassed. (What kind of sibling would I be if I didn't revel in my brother's problems every once in a while?)

"_It's fine… Sooooo what do you want to do until we switch out… it'll probably be awhile."_ Lovi considers it for a while before suggesting,

"_ABC game?"_

* * *

_"Zap went the x-ray, as it malfunctioned and killed the annoying prince who was too weak to beat a couple sissy monsters"_

_"Aww, that's no fun fratello, now we have to start a new story ...I'll come up with a new idea"_

_"But at least try to make it a good one this time, the last one was idiotic"_

_"Can I make it about unicorns?"_

_"… Don't care. Go right ahead."_

_"Exciting! Okay so once long ago, there was a herd of wild unicorns."_

_"Fucking creepy unicorns they were too, with glowing red eyes and blood dripping from their horns."_

_"Gosh Lovi, that's not a nice beginning to a story!"_

_"Hell no it's not, but it's the one we're going with."_

_"I guess so…"_

_"Just get back to the story"_

_"Kk I will, so all the mean scary unicorns wanted to learn to become nice unicorns."_

_"Largely because some idiot was trying to hunt them down and kill them for their crimes."_

_"Mario, the littlest of the unicorns, was the first to try."_

_"Nessa, his sister, did not want for him to become good however."_

_…_

_"… Ooh look fratello I'm in charge now."_

_"About time too, now we can leave… why are you smiling so much?"_

_"I win"_

_"Dammit"_

Yay I actually won, usually our games go on really long until one of us gets bored and drops out (we're both really good at the game) , and usually I'm the one who does that. I would stay and bask in the glory of my win (I really like winning okay?) but Lovi is giving me his strongest mental glare so I decide to just get ready to leave the closet.

First I pull on the clothes that Lovi thankfully managed to not drop in his mad dash, before starting on the long task of breaking down the barricade Lovi put up.

It takes forever, but finally it's down. When it is I quickly run out of the closet and towards the dining hall; because of Lovi's freak out we had missed at least breakfast and lunch, and I'm pretty sure it is later than we usually eat dinner.

Once I get there and get my food, I plop down in a seat next to Ludwig (either my internal food schedule was wrong and it was earlier than I thought, or Luddy had to do something that kept him from his usual eating time), and dig into my food, all while looking out to make sure Antonio isn't here (he must have already eaten _grazie a Dio_.). Lovi had been the one to embarrass himself, and I'm hoping he'll be the one to straighten things out.

"Lovino, where have you been all day? You missed your training!" Ludwig asks after a few moments of watching me. Even though he sounds like he's mad, I'm (pretty sure) I can tell that he was just worried about me.

"Oh… I had a… problem this morning and had to be alone for a while to figure it out." At the mention of 'my problem' Lovi began to recall the dream that had started this whole mess. I did my best to ignore him, so I wouldn't end up blushing for no apparent reason. For someone who is so embarrassed by his feelings, Lovino doesn't exactly try very hard to tone them down.

"Oh well… I'm glad you're okay…" Ludwig mutters barely loud enough for me to hear. It's so cute how embarrassed he is. I wait for a moment to hear Lovi's rude comment, but then realize he's still so focused on his memory of a dream that he isn't paying any attention whatsoever to the rest of the world.

"Thanks Luddy. Hey can I tell you something?" I decide to take advantage of the fact that Lovi isn't paying attention (and therefore can't yell at me) to tell Ludwig how I felt about him. After all, if Lovi got to confess his feelings to Antonio (if accidentally) then didn't I deserve to confess mine?

Ludwig nods, and I continue. "I really like you Ludwig." I say with a smile.

"Ja, I guess we've become pretty good… friends lately." Ludwig says a quietly. His voice had a mixture of confusion, and happiness (beneath his usual gruffness of course), although I can tell that he hesitates a bit on the word friends (probably because he apparently doesn't have many, but I let myself hope that it's because he wants us to be something more).

"Not like that, I really _really_ like you." He looks at me, not understanding what I am trying to say. "really really _really _like you?" He continues to stare at me, obviously still confused. Sigh. He's not going to make this easy is he?

"Ludwig, I love you"

"_Whoa, hold it there, what the fuck are you talking about!?" _Oops, apparently Lovi had come out of his daydreaming without me noticing. He's obviously upset with what I had said, as he is now screaming in our head.

It wasn't that he was throwing a tantrum; this is Lovi's way of making me leave a situation. The screaming in my head is so all encompassing that I can't focus on anything else. I know that the only way he will stop is if I walk away, so I do.

I'm so out of it, I'm not even able to assess Ludwig's response to my statement (or to me suddenly getting up and walking away), but I guess I can do that once Lovi calms down. Once I get out of the dining hall, Lovi tells me to head back to the storage closet (after he stops screaming), something about avoiding Ludwig for the rest of the day until I got my head on straight.

I comply, knowing that if I don't he'll continue to attack my brain with his shrieks. This time though, we leave the door unbarricaded, leaning up against it instead.

"_So what are we supposed to do until we leave, and when are we leaving?"_

_"We're leaving when I'm back in charge, so you don't do anything else dumb. And… ABC game?_

_"Sure, sounds like fun! Okay, I go first! _

_"A long time ago, in a faraway land, lived a beautiful tomato, and her husband the potato."_

_"Bastard, why the hell is the tomato the girl in the relationship?!"_

* * *

**Grazie a Dio= Thank God (I think, please don't kill me if that's grammatically incorrect or something, kill Google Translate instead).**

**AN: Yay, love is in the air, kinda. Like I said at the beginning of this here chapter, I had ****_way _****too much fun writing this, mostly because I love the ABC game (and for the record, I didn't really plan any of that stuff at the beginning, it just sort of happened)! So now Lovi has confessed to Toni (not really, but just go with it), and Feli has also confessed to Ludwig. Unfortunately the two are missing one very important detail; Ludwig and Toni both think Lovi and Feli are one person. Meaning (dun dun dun) drama(You called it****_ AnimeCatGirl76_****)! Teehee, can't wait! **


	10. Chapter 10

**AN: Thank you for all the reviews, and follows, and favorites! I love you all so much! *sends everyone a bucket of love or something (and Homestucks… just no- not like that)* Please keep on doing so, especially reviewing, I love reviews, reviews make me happy and spazzy. So read on, and then click in the little review box at the bottom of the page, and tell me what you think (pwetty pwease)!**

* * *

**Gilbert's POV**

"And then Birdie squirted maple syrup all over my hair, but then he felt all bad afterwards and helped me clean it out. A good thing too, do you know how hard it is to clean maple syrup out of your hair?"

As I finish my story, Francis and Antonio laugh, while 'Luddy' just stares at me with practically no expression _as always_. I don't even know why he had to join us today, something about making sure we didn't do anything too stupid. Of course we won't, the three of us were too awesome to be stupid.

The three of us (Francis Antonio and I) were having a hang out and drink night in Antonio's cabin, and Ludwig just _had _to join us (on second thought, he may have just come for the beer). Whatever, I guess I'll just ignore him and focus on the other more awesome people.

"So Antonio, how are you and your _petit_ Lovino doing?" Francis asked. Out of the corner of my eye, I notice Ludwig straighten up even more than usual (how?) at the question. That's weird.

At the question, Antonio looks around, as if making sure no one else is listening in. Once he apparently feels comfortable enough, he leans in towards us and whispers (as much of a whisper as Toni can manage at least), "I probably shouldn't tell you this, but my little Lovi said that he loves me!"

Once again, I see Ludwig move out of the corner of my eye, this time balling up his fist. Why is he being so unawesomely tense today?

"Seriously? I was sure you were going to have to be the one to man up and say it first. He just up and told you he loves you? What'd you say back?" I respond to Toni excitedly; I was tired of listening to him constantly going on about ways to get with Lovino.

"Well actually," Antonio starts rubbing the back of his neck, and looks a little embarrassed. "He didn't really mean for me to hear him say it, and well… I haven't talked to him since he did; he ran off afterward and has been hiding since… but I'm going to look for him today, it happened yesterday, and I'm going to tell him I love him too~!" He sounded nervous at the beginning of his little speech, but he sounds just as happy-go-lucky as always by the end of it.

Surprisingly, the first person to respond to him wasn't Francis or I but rather Ludwig.

"Are you sure that's what he said?" Ludwig asks. Out of nowhere his voice seems even angrier than usual, and it sounds like he's almost daring Antonio to say yes. What the heck is going on? Last I checked, Ludwig was always extremely respectful towards Toni cause of the whole 'captain' thing. Now he's acting all badass and disrespectful. I would usually be thrilled that he wasn't being all boring and unawesome like usual, but I would rather him not get that way towards one of my best friends.

"Yeah… that's what he said…" Antonio was obviously as confused as I was, if not more so, and when I looked over at Francis I could tell he too had no clue what was going on.

"That's funny," Ludwig began, standing up and walking towards Toni, sounding like he didn't find it funny at all. His voice gets darker and angrier with every word he says. I'm starting to get a little freaked out, but Antonio stands his ground still looking nothing but confused. "Because that's exactly what he said to _me_ yesterday, and he _definitely _meant for me to hear it."

Whoa whoa whoa what? Ludwig has a thing for Lovino too? When had that happened? I knew they were friends but… I didn't even know Ludwig was capable of lovey dovey feelings. And… whose side am I supposed to be on? Antonio is one of my best friends, but Ludwig is my _brother._

"What are you talking about?" Antonio questions. He's still smiling, but I can tell that for once it's not a real smile; I can see the anger lurking beneath the surface of his eyes. "Are you trying to take my Lovi away from me?"

"I'm not taking him away, he's not yours."

"_Mes chéris_, calm down, arguing won't solve anything." Oh good, Francis will stop this before it escalates any further.

"You're right," Antonio begins with a smile. Thank God… "We are pirates after all, we should fight not talk." Never mind.

Francis and I both try to calm down the situation, but everything we do seems to make the two even angrier. After a few minutes of our failed attempts, Ludwig and Antonio push past us to go up on deck to fight. I follow behind them, although I'm pretty sure Francis stayed behind.

I try to follow quickly, but by the time I get to the top deck, the two have already drawn their weapons. They're now circling each other looking for an opening. Both of them are extremely strong fighters; I had always wanted to see them spar, but I couldn't let them actually _fight_. Both of them had extremely explosive tempers, and I have feeling that neither would hesitate to kill the other in the heat of the moment. I couldn't let that happen, since both sides were close to me.

However, I can't think of anything to do, getting between the two of them would be suicide.

As the two continue to circle, other crew members start to come on deck to see what's going on (I have a feeling that Francis had told everyone of the upcoming fight; he would always rather gossip than get involved).

I see Lovino walk up on deck, looking upset as if someone had just woke him up (Even though it is far past noon).

That's it! The whole reason they're fighting is because they are both in love with Lovino, and both think that he loves them back. He'll just have to stop the fight, and tell them what the truth is.

I start to weave through the still forming crowd to get to him.

* * *

**Lovino's POV**

I wake up to the sound of people running around, and all together making a racket. I groan and sit up. I had just gotten back from the damned closet (it had taken all night and most of the morning to switch back to me), and until a few minutes ago had been trying to catch up on the sleep I couldn't get squished up in that place.

I stand up out of bed once I realize I'm not going to be able to go back to sleep with all the noise happening. I had been so tired when I got back that I was still fully clothed, so I just got up and went to the door. Once I'm in the hallway, I wait until someone passes by, and then I stop them.

"What the hell's going on? What's with all this damn noise?"

"Apparently there's a fight starting on the top deck, everyone's going up to watch it." With that the man turns and continues towards the top deck.

Damn idiots. Who the hell is fighting and ruining my sleep? I decide to go up and see who it is; I'll beat them up myself (after they're already tired out from their own fight of course).

"_Ve, fratello, can't we just go back to sleep? I'm tired and don't like to see people fight."_

_"It's too loud to go back to sleep, and besides, I want to see who's fighting."_

_"Fine."_ Feliciano sighs but quiets down. Based on how easily he gave in, I'm pretty sure he's pretty curious too.

When we get up on deck, we can't even see who is fighting; everyone else is too much taller than us. From what I can tell though, they haven't started actually fighting yet; they're just sizing each other up. As I'm trying to figure out a way to see the fight, I feel a hand grab my wrist and pull me back.

I would shriek or something, but pretty much no one on this ship has any sense of personal space, so I've gotten used to being randomly grabbed. I turn around to see who it is, and when I see that it's Gilbert, I give him a questioning look.

"I need your help." He states simply. His words surprise me; I would have thought he would be to 'awesome' to need anyone's help. I raise an eyebrow at him to tell him to go on. "That's Ludwig and Antonio about to start fighting." Why are Toni and the Potato fighting? "And they're apparently fighting over _you_. They both claim that you told them you love them." Oh… shit.

"Crap" I mutter out loud. I see Gilbert look curiously at me, obviously wondering what had happened between me and the two of them, but after a second, he shrugs and pulls me forward. He shoves through the crowd with me in tow, and once he gets us to the front, he pushes me forward a bit.

"Sort this out." He tells me. It's a command, but it also sounds pleading, he obviously doesn't want them to begin the fight.

"_Fratello, this is all our fault!" _ Feli says, obviously feeling bad about the situation,

"_I know, I know. I'm going to try to stop them."_

I take a small step forward, and then gather my courage. Before I can lose my nerve, I take another step towards the two, who have yet to notice me.

"Stop fighting you bastards!" I shout as loud as I can. The two turn to me, shocked, and lower their swords slightly. "Why the hell are the two of you fighting?"

"Lovi, Ludwig told me you said you loved him and I couldn't just let him get away with lying about you."

"Lovino, I know you told me you love me, and yet Antonio was claiming that you had said the same thing to him. I know that you wouldn't do that, but he insisted on claiming otherwise."

The two glared at each other once they realize that they had both said essentially the same thing.

"Tell him" They say in unison, and then glare at each other.

"Well, I um… Antonio I do…" I don't even have to finish my sentence, as soon as I begin Antonio gives off a huge smile, while Ludwig's face falls.

All of a sudden, I feel Feli get extremely upset, and before I know it, he's in charge, and I feel like I've been thrown to a corner of our mind. I had known that technically if one of us had strong enough emotions we could force the other out of control, but it had never happened to us before.

"It's not like that. Luddy I love you." I hear Feli say. With that the looks are reversed, with Ludwig smiling (if not as much as Antonio was), and Antonio looking close to tears.

That's not right, Toni shouldn't be upset; I hate it when he's sad. I can feel the rush of anger come through me, and I use it to push Feli out of the way.

"No Antonio I love…" Then Feli's in charge again.

"Ludwig"

"Antonio"

"Lud-"

"An-"

Every time I get control of the body, Feli takes is back even faster that the time before. I do the same to him. After awhile, we are switching out too quickly to even move out lips, let alone make a sound. Eventually, we begin to feel our body writhe; I can see that Ludwig and Antonio have matching looks of worry on their faces.

The changing has gotten so quick that I can't even tell who's in charge when anymore, it's as if neither of us are. At this point, I don't think either of us wants to fight anymore, but we can't stop whatever's going on.

We feel hands hold us down, keeping us from moving. We can hear voices above us, but for some reason their words are unintelligible. We can also hear a loud high pitch scream coming from somewhere. All of a sudden we feel a sharp pain on our cheek, I think someone just smacked us, but while we can feel it, it does nothing to stop the insanity going on within our body.

The voices above us continue to talk, and there are a few more smacks. The turmoil is getting even worse. Somewhere along the way, the disorientation and insanity had turned into pain, and now it is all we can feel. We definitely aren't fighting now, in fact we are practically clinging to each other to try to stop the pain, but no matter what we do, it continues, the switching becoming faster and faster.

All of a sudden, we feel a sharp pain in our arm; however, we are too disoriented to be able to tell what it is. A moment later, we feel our body slowdown in its movements, and the chaos in our brains begins to slow also. We barely have time to let out a sigh of relief before we fall into a deep, peaceful oblivion.

* * *

**AN: Dun dun dun….. So this chapter had a good bit of drama, as well as some development in the whole "love-triangle-square-circular-geometrical-shape of doom anomaly THING" (Credit to Stomei97 for giving it the best name ever) as well as some new developments of the curse! I hope what happened was at least semi understandable, but if not it will (hopefully) be explained in the next chapter.**

**Also, you know what you should do now that you've read this chapter? You should scroll down like an inch or something, and write a little message in that magic box of making the author happy (sometimes called the review box)!**


	11. Chapter 11

**AN: Oh my gosh, fifty(two) reviews! I-I-I *spazzes out and jumps around in joy, before eventually dying from over-happiness. Eventually is regenerated into a new form that can better survive the happiness, but it too is no use and that form also dies. Only after five more regenerations is a form found that can actually survive the massive excitement, and even then the author is left extremely weak.***

**So… ahem… I got fifty reviews, and I love you all. I would try to do something for the fiftieth reviewer, but unfortunately I have no time to write (barely have time to edit these chapters), so instead I'm just going to post two chapters in celebration (especially cause this one was short). So enjoy, and review, and quite possibly send me into an eighth regeneration (by the way…I'm still not a ginger)!**

* * *

**Ludwig's POV**

I'm about to lunge forward and actually begin the fight with the liar who claims to hold Lovino's affections, when I am stopped by Lovino himself.

"Stop fighting you bastards!" After making sure Antonio isn't going to attack while I have my back turned, I turn towards where Lovino is standing. He's angry again, not acting like the Lovino I have fallen in love with, but I still choose to listen to his words, my Lovino's still in there somewhere.

"Why the hell are you two fighting?" I try to respond but Antonio does before I can.

"Lovi, Ludwig told me you said you loved him and I couldn't just let him get away with lying about you."

I'm so angry at him that I barely hear his words, and as soon as the last one is out of his mouth, I begin to speak. "Lovino, I know you told me you love me, and yet Antonio was claiming that you had said the same thing to him. I know that you wouldn't do that, but he insisted on claiming otherwise." I try to calm down and soften my voice as I'm talking to Lovino, but once I realize what Antonio had said before I spoke, my anger is renewed and I turn to glare at him.

"Tell him" I say turning to Lovino, but then glaring again when I hear that Antonio said the exact same thing.

"Well, I um… Antonio I do…" No. It can't be, he told me… but apparently not. I feel my heart begin to break

"It's not like that. Ludwig I love you." At that I begin to smile, I must have misread his words.

"No Antonio I love…" Wait what? But he just said that…

"Ludwig…

Antonio…

Lud-

An-"

Lovino begins to stutter, going between our two names. Every time he speaks, he speaks less and less, until all he is doing is moving his mouth. He drops to his knees as he is speaking, and after a few more moments he falls to his side. His lips are moving quicker than I thought possible, but now no sounds are coming from them.

All of a sudden, his body begins to convulse. He looks like he wants to cry out, but still no sound is made.

I can't do anything but stare in shock at him, as his movements become quicker, and he finally lets out a scream of pain. In fact, it seems as if the entire crew is standing in shock.

Then suddenly, we all begin to move again. I along with Antonio and a few others move to hold him down, and I think that somebody goes to get the medic.

"What's going on?" I ask, raising my voice so it can be heard above Lovino's screams.

"He's gone into hysterics or something!" Antonio responds, sounding as worried as I feel.

After a few more moments Gilbert comes over and crouches down over Lovino, one foot on either side of his torso. After another moment, he swings out and smacks him across the face, hard enough that the sound can be heard above Lovino's cries.

"What the hell was that for?" I yell at him, and Antonio also yells something of the like.

"Whatever's the matter with him, we have to snap him out of it." I grudgingly agree with him, and although it hurts to see Lovino in any more pain than he already is in, I watch as Gilbert smacks him a few more times. However, once he realizes he is having no effect, he stops and moves away.

Thankfully, soon after Gilbert moves out of the way, Kiku, the ship's medic, comes up to Lovino. He watches him for a few moments, and then he pulls out a syringe and a bottle.

"This is a tranquilizer, it'll knock him unconscious. Hopefully, when he wakes up he'll be calmer." I nod and move out of the way slightly while still holding on to Lovino so that Kiku can get closer. He kneels down next to him, and prepares the syringe with the tranquilizer. Kiku injects the medicine into the crook of Lovino's arm, and then steps away once he finishes.

The tranquilizer begins to work quickly. Less than a minute after it's injected, Lovino's scream stops, turning into a mere whimper. Soon that stops as well, and after a few more moments, it is safe for us all to let go of his limbs. I look down at his face, and see it relaxed into a peaceful smile, as if he's as glad as the rest of us are that whatever just happened is now over. Actually, based on the amount of pain he sounded like he was in, he's probably even happier.

"Someone carry him to the medical cabin please, I'll need to keep an eye on him." Kiku commands politely. I grab Lovino's limp body in my arms. I then slowly begin the walk to the medical cabin.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see someone other than Kiku walking along beside me. I turn my head and see that it's Antonio. For a second our eyes meet, and all the anger that was earlier in both of our eyes is now gone, destroyed by the worry we both feel.

We walk the rest of the way in silence, but the peace between the two of us is back. We might be competing for the love of Lovino, but right now that doesn't matter. I can tell how much Antonio loves him, I can see it in the worry filling his eyes, and it is the same amount as I do. Based on how Lovino acted before he went into his fit, Lovino obviously returns both of our feelings. We'll just have to wait until he wakes up to figure anything else out.


	12. Chapter 12

**Feli's POV**

I slowly start to wake up; cringing a bit expecting the pain to start up again as soon as I'm fully awake. Thankfully is doesn't. I keep my eyes closed anyways, deciding to sort out whatever's going on in my head before figuring out the rest of the world.

"_Hey Lovi are you okay?"_

_"Yeah, I'm surprisingly fine. I have no clue what happened though, do you?"_

_"No clue, I'm just glad it's over~. Although, can we make a promise to never fight over the body again? I'm pretty sure that's what started _that_ up."_

_"…agreed. Sorry about that… I just realized something…"_

_"What's that fratello?"_

_"Now we have to give those idiots an explanation to what just happened."_

_"Oh… that's not good. What do we tell them?"_

_"I think… we should tell them the truth. It's going to come out at some time, either with you being idiotic, or me… or you being idiotic. It would probably be better for us if we told them for ourselves rather than them figuring it out."_

_"What if they think we're crazy?"_

_"They probably will, but we can't change that. We just have to take the chance. If they're going to be stupid then that's their problem. We know we're not crazy and that's all that matters."_

_"Alright… I guess I'm going to go ahead and 'wake up'"_

_"That's a good idea; I'll help you out if you don't know what to say."_

I slowly open my eyes, cringing at the bright light coming from the lantern hanging above me. Once my eyes adjust, I look around and begin to sit up.

I'm sitting on a cot in the medical cabin of the ship. Kiku is in here, coming towards me and telling someone that I'm awake. Past him I see Ludwig and Antonio leaning against the wall, quickly standing up to come over; Kiku must have been talking to them.

"Good Lovino, you're up. Are you feeling all right? Does anything hurt?" That's a good question. Now that I think about it, I actually hurt all over.

"Ve. I'm a little sore, but I think that's from where people were holding me down. My face hurts from when whoever it was smacked me. Also, I'm really hungry. Do you have any food?"

"Ludwig, can you bring over the tray?" Ludwig walks over and puts a tray of food on my lap. As soon as he sets it down, I begin vigorously eating. After I've eaten a few mouthfuls, Kiku continues to talk. "So you were aware of what was happening and you remember it?" Kiku sounds kinda surprised by this.

"Kinda. I could mostly tell what was going on, at least at first. The longer _that_ went on, the less I could understand. It was really scary." I decide to not explain exactly _what_ had happened just yet, I couldn't very well tell that until I explained our basic situation.

"So Lovino, do you know what exactly _that_ was?"

Great. Now I get to explain. Why couldn't Lovino have been in charge this time?

"Umm… kind of… but I can't really explain it without explaining some other things first and well… I doubt you'll believe me… but…

"I'll tell you, but once I start my story you have to let me keep talking. I don't really care if you believe me, but at least let me finish talking before you call me insane."

"Of course we'll let you say what you need to." Kiku says then turns to Antonio and Ludwig as if to make sure that they also agree. Apparently he is satisfied with them, because he turns back to look at me.

"Okay, so… I'm not Lovino… my name is Feliciano." When I say this, Antonio is the only one who looks surprised. Ludwig looks like he had somehow known that (he must have remembered my words from when we first met), and Kiku just looks like it makes no difference to him.

"But the thing is… there is a Lovino, and he's in here too." Now I am met with three completely confused faces. "Inside of this one body… there are two of us. Feliciano-that's me, and my brother Lovino. We're two different people… just stuck in the same body." The three both still look confused, although they are getting that look in their eyes that Lovi and I have seen too many times before. The look of pity that people only give you if they think you are hopelessly insane. I knew this would happen...

Well, it can't get worse than it already is, so I might as well tell them everything, and I better hurry too, as Ludwig and Antonio both look like they're going to go against what I had asked and start talking.

"I guess I should start at the beginning. It was around nine years ago, when Lovi and I were ten years old."

* * *

**Third Person POV- Ten Years Ago**

"Dare" Feliciano and Lovino said in unison. They were sitting with a group of children, all of whom were older than them, playing truth or dare. The two were playing as a team since they did everything in unison. They didn't even have to look at each other as they answered either truth or dare, but they always answered the same as the other.

"Alright then," began the boy giving the dare. He was the oldest of all the boys, and Feliciano and Lovino would do anything to impress him. "I dare the two of you to go into the haunted house at the edge of the woods. You have to go inside and stay in there for an hour."

Lovino and Feliciano gulped and looked at each other, then nodded their heads, after all ghosts weren't real… right?

At that point, everyone decided to end the game, they were much more interested in seeing the two go into supposed haunted house. The group hurried away from where they were sitting. All of their parents were having a night out and had grouped them together, hoping the older children would take care of the younger. Unfortunately they didn't know that most of the older boys were manipulative bullies, if they had there probably would have had an adult watch over them, and then nothing would have happened.

However, they didn't so it did.

The group of boys was standing just outside the fence, watching the house with fear. "Well then, go on." The boy who had given the dare instructed. "Or are the two of you too scared?"

"Of course not." The boys responded in unison. They then climbed through the fence.

"You have to stay in there for an entire hour." Lovino and Feliciano nodded and then quick started walking towards the house, as if they were completely confident, but as soon as they were sure that they were out of sight of the group, they grabbed each other's hands and slowed down tremendously.

They almost decided to just wander around in front of the house for the hour, but they knew that they were awful liars and would never be able to convince the others they had been inside.

Because of this, they cautiously walked towards the front door, and opened it slowly, slipping inside. Because the trip had been so last minute, they didn't even have a candle, so they were stuck in the darkness. Thankfully the rooms _did_ have windows, so there was just enough moonlight to move around in.

The boys wandered around the house for about a half hour. They were just starting to calm down when they heard a loud scratching sound. If asked later, they would have said that it was probably just a mouse or something of the like, but at that time they were sure it was a ghost out to kill them.

As soon as they heard the sound, they ran. They ran through rooms and rooms until if they had tried to find a way out of the house they would have been unable to. However, instead of even thinking about getting out, they just continued to run. They held hands as they sprinted, both to keep from losing each other in the dark, and for comfort.

Finally they came to a room that had light leaking out the bottom of the door. Normally, a person would find that scary, but in the condition they were in, light, no matter the source, was a comfort. Because of this, they ran straight into the room, and kept running until they hit something and fell backwards.

They had crashed into a man dressed in a black cloak, and he also fell backwards. He landed on top of a candle. That was when the two boys realized that the things lighting the room were many candles, each burning brighter than they thought possible. Something was odd about these candles though, when the man in the cloak knocked one over the fire didn't spread, and it didn't flicker. Instead, the flame turned black before disappearing completely.

The sight scared the children, as it made them realize where they were. They were in the middle of a witch circle. Looking around, they were even surer of this, the other candles were in a perfect ring with what looked like lines of blood connecting them. Until that moment, like most of the rest of the world, they hadn't believed in magic, but now they saw no other explanation.

Once the man stood back up, he walked over to the boys, and they shrieked when they saw his eyes. They looked like they were burning, in the same way that the black flame had been before it disappeared. They were a bright green, and yet they somehow seemed to suck all the light out of the room.

"What have you done? She's gone! SHE'S GONE!" The man screamed at them, with hatred, anger, and a hint of sadness in his voice. The man stalked towards them, and reached out to grab them.

With that, they got up and ran. The man shouted out something the boys couldn't understand, and they felt something wrap around their feet. It felt like a rope around their ankles, but there was nothing there. After a second, they felt a tugging, and they were pulled across the room.

They were then lifted up so that they were in a standing position and slammed against the wall. The man walked towards where they were, and glared at them. They tried to run again, but they couldn't move their bodies.

"Because of you, she is lost forever. Do you understand what you have done?"

The boys tried to shake their heads, but they still couldn't move. The man most likely knew that they had no clue what was going on, but he continued anyways.

"My name is Arthur Kirkland, and you have just made a very powerful enemy. I should kill you, but that's too easy. I'll give you a different punishment instead. You two are identical twins I presume?" Arthur didn't even give the two a moment to attempt to respond. "Alright then, I think I know what your punishment will be. I will combine your two souls, your two minds into the same body. You will be stuck, having to control the body when it's your time, and sit back and watch when it's not. Do you have anything to say before I carry out my curse?

The boys were released from their immobility so they could respond, but they knew that there was no point in trying to run because of that.

"Why are you doing this?" Lovino began, "We did nothing wrong!" Feliciano continued.

"You have done everything wrong, and you will suffer for what you have done!" The man shouted in rage

The twins shrank back in fear, not understanding what they had done to make the man so angry, all they knew was that something horrible was about to happen.

"From this day forth, the two of you will live in the same body, but with both of your minds still intact, as punishment for what you have done!"

The boys whimpered in pain, as a wave of black magic washed over them. The magic dug down into their very being, pulling each of them apart while simultaneously pulling the two of them together. As the spell went on, the man continued to speak.

"But that is only part of your punishment,"

* * *

**Feliciano's POV**

"Only part of it?" Ludwig asked pulling me out of the daze I had fallen into. Oh no, I wasn't planning on telling them that part!

"Oh yeah, after that he just went on to explain the details of the curse, that kind of thing." If Ludwig, Antonio, and Kiku weren't already looking at me with disbelief, they would have at that point. They could tell that I had more to say, but they didn't push it, probably since they thought I was insane anyways.

"Uhh… well after that Arthur let us go and disappeared. At that point we were like we were now, two people in one body. Lovino was in charge at that point. We ran out of the house, but when we got out it was almost morning. The spell had somehow taken all night even though it felt like only a few moments. The boys had all left at that time, I guess they got scared.

"We went back home. Our grandfather, who took care of us, was at there waiting for us. He had some of the other adults out looking for us, but he had stayed at home in case we showed up on our own. When he saw there was only one of us, he told the search party to keep going, to find whoever was still out.

"He couldn't tell who was gone and who was still here, since we were identical, and when he tried to ask Lovino who he was he didn't answer.

"The two of us didn't speak for days, except to each other in our minds. Eventually Nonno gave up on the search. He finally got us to tell him what had happened, but just like you all," I stop and look at all three of them individually, "he didn't believe us. He thought that we had seen our twin get killed, he still couldn't figure out who he thought we were, and were traumatized by it. That we had come up with this story to make ourselves feel like our brother was still with us.

"For the longest time, he tried to 'help' us, bring us back to normal. Eventually he realized that wouldn't happen. He moved us out into a house in the countryside to protect us. He still loved us despite our apparent insanity, but some of the other townsfolk thought that we should be locked up, or even killed because of it. We lived in that house for a while, Nonno didn't believe our story but he realized that we did have two personalities. He would always ask who we were, Lovino or Feliciano, and he would treat us accordingly. It was probably the best life we could have lived in the situation.

"About a year later though, he disappeared. We stayed in the house for a while more, but eventually we ran out of food. We had to leave the house to survive, and we ended up living on the streets. We couldn't hold a job; we would eventually start acting 'insane' and we would lose whatever job we had managed to find. Sometimes we would even get chased out of a town, but that only happened the few times people _did_ believe us; they didn't want anything associated with black magic near them. Eventually we learned to travel from city to city so no one had the time to figure us out. We lived like that for years, until we met up with you guys.

"You all know most of the rest of the story from there.

"Yesterday was a complication of the spell; for some reason we kept switching back and forth so quickly that it was hurting us."

I can tell from the way they act that they don't believe a word I said, and they all look like they want to say something.

"And yes, I know that you all think I'm insane, and it doesn't really make a difference. Now I'm sore and I'm tired from all that talking, so I'm going to sleep now. You can tell me how crazy I am when I'm feeling better." I'm not usually so rude, but I decided that it was probably alright for the situation. I would get all my bitterness out today so that I could go back to being my normal self tomorrow. I move the now empty tray of food to the table near my cot then lay down. As I do, I can hear them moving around.

"_Feli, tell them I think they are all idiotic bastards."  
_ I remain lying down, with my eyes closed, but I do as he asked. "Also Lovi told me to tell you that he thinks you are all idiotic bastards." I hear their movement stop for a minute before starting up again. After a few moments, I hear the door open, and I think that Antonio and Ludwig both leave, leaving only Kiku.

I hear a creaking sound, and I assume that Kiku has sat down somewhere. I'm about to actually fall asleep, but then I hear Kiku begin to speak.

"I know you're awake Feliciano. You should know, although I know you have not told me everything, I do believe what you are saying. You are not insane."

"Why do you believe me?" I ask, opening my eyes, sitting up straight, and excitedly turning to Kiku. I'm really happy that he says he believes me, but also extremely confused as to why.

"I was once close friends with a man named Arthur Kirkland, presumably the same man that you met, and I know he has the magical abilities to do what you described. I don't know why he would; he didn't seem like the kind to curse to ten years olds for no reason when I knew him, but he is definitely capable of doing so."

"Do you know where he is now?" I ask excitedly. If we can talk to him he might be able to change us back.

"I have not spoken to him for many years, most likely much before you even met him." That was surprising; apparently Kiku is older than I thought he was. "Now sleep, you'll need it. I'll try to help you out, but I doubt I'll be able to convince anyone you're not insane."

I do as he asked not knowing what else to do, and lay back down.

"_Someone actually believes us!"_

"_Don't get your hopes up; he might just be lying to make us feel better or something."_

Despite Lovi's words, I can tell that he is as hopeful as I am. If Kiku is telling the truth, than things are much better than we had dreamed of. No one, not even our own grandfather, has ever believed us about this before. Even if everyone else on the ship thinks we are insane, at least we have one person who doesn't.

Although he's right that we weren't telling the whole truth. Oh well, that problem will sort itself out when the time comes; his knowing about it will do nothing to save us.

* * *

**AN: So yeah, thanks for reading. I hope you liked it, and if you did (or even if you didn't) you should put a little review down in the box below these letters. That's right, ****_you know you want to._**** Anyways, bye and thanks for reading and reviewing!**


	13. Chapter 13

**AN: Hola! I'm back and I bring with me another chapter update. I say this every chapter, but I love every single reviewer and even reader so effing much. Every time I read a new review, my day literally gets like ten times better, and I have seriously teared up at some points because of your super nice reviews. Thank you so much, and please keep reading and reviewing! Also, since this is a shorter chapter than usual, I'll try to update tomorrow as well (no promises).**

* * *

**Antonio's POV**

"I understand that you don't believe their story about magic and whatnot, I do not expect you to, but whatever the reason, there _are_ two people in there. Whether because of black magic or some mental disease you decide, but Lovino and Feliciano _are_ two separate people. Don't act like you haven't noticed it before."

I nod; it's true that there seem to be two parts of Lovino, one that is nice and friendly and… one that I love. But can I really be expected to believe that there actually is a difference? That is exactly what Kiku is expecting me to do.

I guess I could at least try treating 'Lovino' and 'Feliciano' as different people, at least for long enough to see what would happen.

"Are you going to do as he asked?" Ludwig asks me after we leave and are all the way down the hall and out of earshot of Kiku.

"I'm going to try, and get the word out to the rest of the crew to try too. It can't hurt, and who knows, maybe it will help." I see Ludwig nod; though I can tell he is unsure about it. I have a feeling that he is less willing to try than I am, he has always been a straightforward person, and I have a feeling he's going to have trouble calling one person by two names.

I shrug and let it go. He'll get used to it or he won't, that's all up to him. Of course hopefully he wouldn't have to get used to it, maybe whatever was wrong with Lovino (Feliciano?) will go away on its own soon, maybe it's just something that has recently happened. Although, his story did seem to suggest that he's been the way he is since he was young. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Ludwig and I start heading towards the dining hall for an early dinner. Honestly I'm not that hungry; I just know that the best place to find Lovi is where there is food.

Once I walk into the room, I see that I was right in my assumption. Lovi's sitting in the far corner, glaring at his food while he's eating it. I can tell he's in a worse mood than usual, but at least I can tell that it's him and not his hyperactive counterpart.

I quickly grab a tray and sit down next to him, while Ludwig sits with his brother instead. I guess that he isn't very comfortable with Lovi (or Feliciano) right now.

"Hey uh… Lovi…"

"It's LO-VI-NO." At least I got the right name. So _my _Lovino was the one actually named Lovino, while the other one was named Feliciano.

"Sorry. Lovino. Soooo… how's it going~?" I don't really know what else to say. I want to bring up what he had told us all yesterday, but I wasn't really sure how to bring it up. Saying, "_so, you have some sort of personality disorder that you're convinced has something to do with black magic, that's cool. How're you dealing with that?"_ would probably end up getting me attacked. At the same time, I obviously can't act like nothing had happened.

Lovino looks at me questioningly, obviously wondering how I can be so chipper. What can I say? Chipper is my middle name (well not really, but that _would_ be pretty cool). After a moment he responds. "Fine I guess. I can't really focus on my food right now though because Feli is crying over the fact that _his Luddy_ decided to not sit with us. I'm used to tuning him out though, so I'm fine." After that he stops talking, and his eyes get a distant look to them. I've noticed him doing this before but I've always just assumed he was just thinking hard about something. I have a feeling that he's actually 'talking to his brother' in these moments (probably more like arguing but …*shrug*).

"Is he saying anything interesting right now?" I ask. I can see what Kiku is talking about now; now that I think about it, it makes since that there are two people in there. I don't necessarily believe his story about "black magic" but at the same time I don't think he is lying either. He believes what he is saying, even if it isn't the truth.

"Not really. He says hi, and to tell Ludwig hi if you talk to him before he does."

"Oh, well then hi Feliciano… did I say that right? That's a long name."

"Yeah you said it right, though he says you can just call him Feli, Feliciano is way too long to say all the time.

"Oh okay then. Wait! By that logic can't I call you Lovi?!"

"Hell no, his name's five syllables, mine is only three, it doesn't need to be shortened."

"Pleeeeaaaase." Maybe if I whine enough, he'll give in. He doesn't seem to cave. "Pwetty Pwease~" Maybe the baby talk will work on him. Unfortunately he gives me a look that shows he is not amused. Finally I go all out, and give him my best puppy dog look. If this doesn't work than I'll have to give up on trying.

At first I think it won't do any good, but after a few seconds his face starts to soften. After nearly a full minute of the stare, he finally mutters, "Fine bastard." Yay! Now I can finally call my Lovi Lovi~. I mean, I already do, but now I can do it without being hit and yelled at.

"So Lovi," he still glares at me, but now lets me say it without too much of a fuss, "I've been wanting to talk about what you told me a couple days ago before you ran off. That was you right?" What if the one who had a thing for me was Feliciano? What would I do then? It was Lovi that I loved.

"S-si that was me bastard, although I was asleep, so I wouldn't call it _telling _you." His voice is quieter than I have ever heard it, and his face redder. I can tell he was hoping that the craziness of yesterday would have made me forget that little incident, but obviously I haven't. "Look, just forget you heard anything. I…" I cut him off.

"I don't want to forget what I heard Lovi because I love you too." Lovi stares at me openmouthed, and his face gets even redder. I swear, I'm starting to worry that if it gets any brighter he's going to pass out or something. He starts sputtering curses at me, and stands up as if to walk away.

I grab his arm and pull him back beside me, suddenly more serious than before. "Lovi, is what you said true? Do you love me?"

"Yes, but I…" I don't let him finish. As soon as I'm sure that my feelings really are returned, I pull him towards me and press my lips against his, promptly cutting off his words.

I feel him stiffen at first, but he slowly melts into the kiss. His lips slowly move against mine. They are dry and cracked from the salt in the air, as I'm sure mine are, yet they still feel amazing. After a few moments, I slowly start to deepen the kiss while still keeping it chaste.

At first he slightly smiles into the kiss and seems as happy about it as I am, but after a few moments he stiffens again and begins to pull back. Suddenly I feel a slap across my face, and when I open my eyes (I hadn't even noticed that I had closed them) I see Lovino glaring at me. This isn't his usual glare though; it is full of more anger than I thought possible. I'm used to seeing Lovino _act_ upset, but now I know what he looks like when he really is, and I have to admit it scares me.

"What was that?" His voice contrasts from his appearance. His voice is completely cool and unfeeling, and it's even scarier than his anger.

"You- you said you loved me, so I thought…" He cuts me off.

"You thought wrong. If you would have let me finished, I would have told you that while I do love you, it wouldn't work out. I was going to tell you to move on because nothing is going to happen between the two of us."

I feel my heart begin to break at his words, and so I start to try to change his mind. "Is this because of Feliciano? He loves Ludwig doesn't he? I… I'm okay with that. They can be together, you're different from him right? I don't care about that; I just want to be with you." He looks shocked at my words, but quickly covers up the fact.

"No. That's not it; I can't explain to you what it is. All I can tell you is _no_. Just forget about us, it can't happen, won't happen. Just forget about it." At this, he stands up, and I grab his hand, trying to stop him again.

However, this time he jerks his hand out of my grip, then turns to glare at me. "Don't touch me Antonio." He says then walks out of the room.

If I had been watching him, I might have seen him shake as soon as he moved away. If I had seen his face I might have seen the tears running down it. If I had been listening to his voice, I might have heard him whisper "I'm sorry" before he left the room.

However, I wasn't doing any of those things, I was too busy feeling my heart splinter and shatter like glass.


	14. Chapter 14

**AN: Thank you so much for reading and reviewing! You guys are as awesome as Prussia thinks he is!**

**Also, in response to Roxi2Star, thanks for the info, I didn't know that (the whole thing kind of confused me) so I'm glad to finally understand it! I went back and took that detail out.**

* * *

**Ludwig's POV- A Few Days Later**

"Luddy, I need to talk to you" I see Gilbert walk up to me. I'm really not in the mood to deal with him right now, but he had been trying to talk to me the past couple of days, and I know that if I avoided him for much longer, he would start attempting more _creative_ ways to get me to talk to him.

"I told you, don't call me Luddy; I'm not a kid anymore. In fact, you look more like the little brother than I do. Should I call you Gilly?" Maybe that will get him to leave me be.

"Sure go ahead; you calling me Gilly makes you look just as little as getting called Luddy does. Anyways, I'm awesome enough to pull it off." Dammit he was right (about the little kid thing, not the awesome part). "And also, you let Lovi, erm I mean Feli, call you Luddy." When he says that, I turn and start to walk away. The reason I've been avoiding Gil is because I know he wants to talk to me about Lovino (or whatever the hell his name really is). Lovino is the last thing I want to talk about.

Gil grabs my arm and pulls me back. I smack him away, and he grabs me into a headlock in retaliation. Somehow, even though I know I'm stronger than him, he always wins when we 'fight'. It must be something genetic about being the older brother.

"Dude, I said I needed to talk to you, and I'm going to talk to you. Now, do you want to stay and listen to me peacefully, or do you want to have this conversation standing like this?"

I pull my head out of his grasp and stand up straight, glaring at him and crossing my arms. He takes that as an affirmation and begins to talk.

"Cause of the way you reacted to me talking about him, I can tell you don't want to talk about Feliciano, but you need to."

"His name is Lovino."

"No. The person you care about is named Feliciano. I'm not an idiot; I can tell you don't have any feelings for Lovino, except maybe annoyance. You _do_ have feelings for Feli though. It's completely unawesome for you to act like you don't." My problem isn't that I don't think I have feelings for… whatever his name is; I just don't believe there are two people in one body. It's completely illogical. I am about to voice my thoughts, when Gil interrupts me by continuing to talk. "And I know you don't believe that there are two of them, it's too _irrational _for you. But think about it Ludwig. You _know_ that Feliciano doesn't act like Lovino, how can you explain that? Sure, at first we thought it was just one guy with mood swings, but looking back that makes no sense.

"I get that you don't believe in magic, neither do I! But the fact is that if you can't accept _something_, then you are going to lose _everything_ you have with Feliciano. Can't you at least _try _to accept that? I can see how much you've been missing him; it's been killing you to avoid him, and from what I can tell he isn't doing any better. I think you should at least try things out with him.

"That's just my advice though, if you want to unawesomely ignore it that's your call." With that he angrily walks off, but his words ring in my ears. It's true, I've been missing… Feliciano, but I still don't believe that he's a different person than Lovino.

At the same time though, maybe _he _really does believe it. It seems impossible, I still want to say he's just lying, but the more I think about it the less sense it makes.

Why would he make up a story like that if he didn't believe it? All it would do is make his life harder; he would have no reason to do that to himself just to do it. Maybe, just maybe… Antonio and Gil are right. I could at least try it out.

I slowly walk towards the cafeteria, assuming Feliciano will be there, but when I get there he obviously isn't. I walk over to Antonio and ask if he knows where he is, but he just shakes his head and looks away. He's been looking dejected the past couple days, but no one seems to know why.

After that, I walk towards Kiku to ask him the same question. Since the incident, he has been spending a lot of time with Lovino/Feliciano. Hopefully he'll know where he is.

"He left a few minutes ago; he said he was going back to his cabin."

"Thank you. Um… just wondering but… which one was he?"

"It was Feli." I nod then walk away. I head towards the cabin, all the while trying to figure out what to say. When I get to the room, I see a bulge in one of the hammocks, covered in a blanket. I walk over to the hammock and see reddish brown hair peeking out of the top of the blanket.

"Feliciano, are you awake?" As soon as I speak, he sits up straight (as straight as you can sit in a hammock) and looks at me.

"Luddy!" He cries and stands up and starts to lunge towards me to hug me. However, at the last moment he stops himself and backs up, muttering an apology. I would never admit it out loud, but I really wish he hadn't pulled back; among other things, I have missed his constant hugs the past few days.

"Hello Feliciano." I say stiffly, not sure what to say. I had forgotten in all my conflict over whether I should talk to him the fact that he was probably hurt by my ignoring him the past few days. He might not even want to try out a relationship (of _any_ kind) anymore after I had been such a bastard.

"Oh. You can just call me Feli; Feliciano is way too long a name for anyone to say." He looks kind of shy, but also hopeful. Maybe I still did have a chance.

"Okay then… Feli. I apologize for avoiding you the past few days; I've had a lot to think about." He nods in understanding, and then looks up at me curiously.

"So did you decide on anything?"

"I'm sorry, but I still don't think I really believe you about having a twin in there." Feliciano's face falls.

"Of- of course, I understand."

"But… I still want to try this out. I get that it won't be easy with all the complications, but… I think I love you, and I don't know if you still feel the same way but…" I trail off. Feli is just staring at me in shock.

He doesn't feel the same way anymore. I ruined it. I feel an overload of embarrassment enter my brain, and am paralyzed by it all. I am only brought out of my paralysis when I feel a small and familiar pair of arms wrap around me.

"Of course I still love you Luddy." Feli whispers before getting up on his tiptoes. Realizing what he wants, I meet his lips halfway.

The kiss is sweet, innocent, happy, and full of energy, just like Feliciano. He is smiling into it, and I feel the edges of my lips curve up as well. After a moment that seems like an eternity but is probably incredible short, we both pull away, and I am content to just stare into his eyes.

A second later, he flinches, and I worry that he has already changed his mind, maybe I did something wrong. I start to stutter out an apology (how has this small man changed me from big and strong to embarrassed and stuttering?) but he cuts me off.

"No it's fine, Lovi's just yelling at me. I'm not sure if you noticed, but he doesn't like you very much. He was fine with us being friends, but he doesn't want you to be anything more. He'll probably curse you out the next time he sees you."

This is definitely weird for me, I don't know if I can get used to this. Having a relationship with Feli would make my life so much more complicated and confusing. Is it really worth it?

I think back over all the conversations I've had with him, his beautiful smile, his excessive talking that might be annoying but is also incredibly endearing. I think of the kiss we just shared, and all the others we might have if I am with him. I pull him towards me, for once initiating an embrace, and feel his warmth as he learns against me.

Yes. Definitely worth it.


	15. Chapter 15

**AN: Hey I'm back, with yet another chapter. Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last one, and everyone keep on reviewing (please)! Also, as a random bit of info about the author, I actually love Spamano waaaay more than Gerita (although I love both, don't get me wrong), I just kinda wrote how I could see things happening, and that's what happened. Don't worry, it'll get happy for Lovi and Toni(…eventually), so please don't kill me on account of any feels.**

**So anyways… read on (and then review… pretty please)!**

* * *

**Toni's POV: (Around) One Month Later**

"You need to get over it dude, it's completely unawesome for you to be moping about something for so long."

"Oui. As much as I love love, there is no point wasting your life over something that cannot be. You have to move on."

I ignore them and finish off my beer. Maybe they're right, I shouldn't spend my life crying over something that can't be- but that's just the thing. It _could_ be. I love him, and he loves me. Until those two facts are no longer true, I won't be able to give up on Lovi. If only he would tell me what's keeping us apart, I would rip it apart piece by piece until it's too small to be able to be seen.

Alright so maybe Gil was right when he says I get too serious when I get serious, but I can't help it. I have never hurt so much, never _been_ hurt so much before in my life. Who would have thought that love, requited love no less, could hurt worse than any sword that's ever cut into me?

I'm about to refill my glass from the tap in the middle of the room, but I am interrupted when the door to my cabin flies open, banging against the wall. I look around trying to figure out who opened the door, but I don't see anyone. Maybe I've had a little too much to drink.

"Birdie!" Birdie, isn't that Gil's friend person thingy? I squint my eyes, and then I realize that I do indeed see that guy standing in the doorway. I feel better now, I have trouble seeing him when sober, so I'm probably not as out of it as I had feared.

On closer inspection, Birdie (or whatever his real name is) looks out of breath and his hair his extremely windblown. After a few moments of thinking, I realize that he is the one assigned to the crow's nest today. This isn't good, if he is here, that means he spotted something, and based on his facial expression, it isn't a merchant ship.

"It's the _Ledyanaya Voda._ They're coming in our direction; if they haven't spotted us yet, they will soon." My blood runs cold. The _Ledyanaya Voda _was a true pirate ship, not a semi-mercenary one like mine. They pillage and plunder, and kill everyone who gets in their way. Not only that, but of all the pirate ships out there, they are the worst; many people say the captain, Ivan, doesn't even care about the money, but only the killing. The crew is relatively small, but each and every one of them is completely ruthless. The _Ledyanaya Voda _is probably the most dangerous ship out there, and she's heading straight towards us.

"Gilbert, start waking up the crew and tell them to prepare for battle. Francis, get Ludwig and tell him to meet me on the top deck, then help Gil. Birdie… whatever your name is, go back to the crow's nest and watch to see if their direction changes. Go… NOW!" With that they all run to do the jobs I commanded, while I run towards the top deck, after grabbing my sword hanging from the wall. I am immensely happy that the ship was spotted before I got completely drunk, I don't know how the crew would have dealt fighting an incredibly dangerous enemy with a drunken captain.

As I wait for Ludwig, I see people beginning to run around the deck, preparing for the upcoming battle. In less than a minute, Ludwig is standing beside me, and we are organizing plans of attack. Our crew is pretty capable, we have some of the strongest fighters there are, but while I think we can survive the battle, I don't know if we will be able to do it without a loss of life.

We can't let that matter now though; all we can do is fight as hard as we can. In less than a half hour, the entire crew (other than Kiku who is below deck preparing to treat the wounded) is armed and assembled on deck, and the ship is ready for the fight (all the valuables are stored safely, and the doors leading below decks are securely locked). I am proud of the crew; although they are extremely scared, they stand straight and brave.

"If you haven't heard, the _Ledyanaya Voda _is fast approaching, and we will most likely have to fight them. You all know that they are strong, but I know we are stronger. What they have in brutality, we make up for in numbers and strategy. The people we are going to fight care only about winning, meaning that they won't be as careful as we are. They think they are stronger than us, and that will be their downfall!"

At this the crew cheers, and my mandatory pep talk is completed- however that is not all I have to say. "It will make this battle harder, but we fight to protect ourselves, not to kill. If it is a matter between your own life and an enemy's, save your own, but otherwise try your best so that there are no deaths today." With this the crew nods. If the crew wanted to kill, they would be on a ship like Ivan's, not mine.

We stand tense as the ship approaches. I decided to anchor when we knew for sure the other ship had spotted us so that we have more control of the situation. Not only is she larger that the _Lucha Tomate_, she's also faster, so there's no point in trying to run.

Many of the others are worried that the ship will just attack from afar and sink us rather than fight hand to hand. I know that won't happen though because that wouldn't be 'fun' enough for Ivan. Unfortunately, I don't think me telling them that would make them feel any better.

As I'm waiting for the battle to begin, I spot Lovi (at least I assume it's Lovi based on the scowl covering his face) standing with the other members of the crew. I wish I had a reason to keep him from the fight, to protect him, but he had progressed further than anyone could have imagined in his fighting (Feli had too), and he was now as strong as if not stronger than the majority of the crew. He didn't need protecting, at least no more than any of the rest of us did.

Eventually the other ship comes into view, and I can hear the Ivan laughing from aboard her. I see the men around me begin to tremble in fear at his maniacal yet childish laughing. If I were not captain, I would be trembling as well. However, I _am_ captain, so instead I let out a cheer, a battle cry. The cheer slowly spread to the others, and soon the fear is gone, or at least momentarily forgotten.

As the ship gets closer, we prepare to board her, while the other crew does the same.

We are ready for this battle. We will win this battle. "We will win this!"

* * *

**Lovi's POV**

I've never been in a battle before, and while I have trained for this, I had not expected the insanity.

When sparing, you have time to think through the moves you make, to take your time and wait for an opening. In a real battle, there is no time for that. If you take too long then someone else will come up from behind you and attack. Because of this you have to be aware of all of your surroundings, while also paying close attention to whoever you are fighting.

So far the fighting has been going well for me. My size allows me to be faster than my opponent, so I have not even been hurt so far. Of course the other side does have an advantage; they are trying to kill me while I am only trying to knock them out or make them unable to fight.

I'm currently battling a man that is practically the definition of pirate, eye patch and everything. He's a lot stronger than I am, but he seems pretty stupid; if he had any intelligence he would have figured out not to lunge at me in an all-out attack every time he _thought_ he saw an opening. So far he had missed or been blocked every time.

Thankfully, he _is_ an idiot, and so once again he jumps towards me, putting all his strength into the blow. I sidestep out of the way, and then spin around and hit him in the side of the head with the flat of my blade. He falls unconscious, and drops his sword. I kick the weapon away from him in case he wakes up or is only faking unconsciousness (although I doubt he has enough brain cells to do that) and then look around to see who else I should fight. Every enemy looks to be paired off with someone, and many of them are fighting two of our men at a time. This makes me feel pretty proud to have defeated someone all on my own.

On the far side of the ship, I see Ludwig surrounded by three men (although one of them might be a woman with long hair held back in a ponytail). I _would_ help him out, but he seems to be holding his own. In only the short amount of time I'm watching, I see him knock one of the three out. He doesn't need any help, in fact I would probably get in his way, he is a much better fighter than I (as much as I hate to admit it).

I turn in the other direction, and see Antonio facing off against a tall platinum haired man. That must be Ivan, the captain of the ship we're fighting. They have a bubble of space around them, as if they are separated from the rest of the battle. Their blades are swinging so fast I can barely see them, yet they both seem able to block every swing. Toni seems to be doing well. I'm not sure but it seems like he has the upper hand.

"_Lovi look!"_ Feli shouts in my head, pointing out a scene right beside the fight. I had not noticed it before because I was so focused on Toni, but now I see it. There was a thin woman, with blond straight hair that's hanging loose, creeping toward the fight. Somehow she's managing to weave around all the little fights, and is quickly approaching Toni. He has his back turned to her, and in her hand she holds a throwing knife.

"Toni, behind you!" I scream, but the sound of clashing swords is so loud I can't hear myself so there is no way he can. I start forcing myself towards the girl, determined to get to her before she gets to Toni. I'm almost to her, when I see her line up her shot, and throw the knife, straight towards Toni's unprotected back.

"Toni no!" I scream, lunging forward.

* * *

**Translations- Ledyanaya Voda (phonetic version of Ледяная вода) is Russian for Icy Water.**


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter Sixteen**

**Hey yall, I'm back! This is going to be a short note since I forgot about this and have tons of homework that I should be doing now instead of editing and posting this (and for the record… I have no idea when Lovi started calling Toni Toni, I guess it's about time). Before I leave though… OH MY GOSH I HAVE MORE THAN FIFTY FOLLOWERS, I AM NOW DEAD! So anyways… read on (and then review!).**

* * *

**Toni's POV**

"Toni no!" I spin around when I hear Lovi's voice calling my name in desperation. When I turn I see a knife hurdling towards my chest. I hear the sound of it sinking into flesh, and I scream.

"Lovi!" A split second before I would have been hit by the knife flying in the air towards me, Lovi had stepped in front of me, protecting me from death with his own body. I watch as he drops to the ground, and blood quickly starts to pool beneath him. Thankfully I don't think the knife hit his heart or any other vital organs, but if I don't get him to Kiku soon, he'll bleed out. I can't get him to Kiku though, until this battle is over; he is below deck and we won't open the doors unless it is safe for him (he is a medic, not a fighter). Once I realize this, I charge towards Ivan, who up until now has been watching and laughing. Out of the corner of my eye I see Ludwig finish his fight and rush towards me, hopefully to take down the knife thrower that caused this problem.

Before, Ivan and I were a pretty even, but now with all the anger I'm holding he's no match for me. Every time he attacks, I hit his sword out of the way hard enough to make my own bones shake. Eventually, I hit it so hard that it goes flying out of his hand and into the sea. He only laughs at this, even though I can see in his eyes that he knows he's lost.

I swing my swords towards him with all the anger I have in me, headed straight towards his neck, but at the last second I shift it so that the side of the blade hits him rather than the edge. I'm still incredibly angry, but a killer is just not what I am. The sword is right on target, and Ivan crumples to the ground unconscious.

Normally, once the captain is down, the crew surrenders, but these people don't even seem to care. However, the battle is dying down anyways; there seem to be more enemies out of the fight than in it. Thankfully I don't see any other members of my crew who look too injured.

I quickly rush into the battle, knocking out a large man taking on two of my men from behind. Once he is down, I see that the men are Mathew and Gil. "You two, go and try to stop Lovino's bleeding. I would do it but I need to fight." They nod, and rush over to where I had just come from. Mathew kneels down to Lovino, while Gil stands guard in case someone tries to attack them. Thankfully I made sure that my crew all knew basic first aid, so there's a chance they might be able to get Lovi to hang on until the fight is over.

Once I'm sure that someone is helping him, I start fighting again, knocking out every enemy who gets in my way. In a matter of minutes the fight is over, with every enemy knocked unconscious. Ludwig had seemed to go into a similar rampage as I had, and we mowed through the enemy faster than I had thought possible.

"Gilbert, you form a group to get all the injured down to Kiku, the ones in the worst condition first." I then raise my voice for the rest of the crew, " Anyone who can walk, go by yourself. If your wounds are not urgent, help out with everything else before getting treated. Ludwig, get some people together to go below deck of the _Voda _and secure everything down there. Find the ship's medic first, then put a guard on whoever they are and send them around healing their own men. Francis, you take everyone else and make sure all these men are disarmed, then tie them up." Everyone nods, and goes to do what they were asked. Lots of people are heading below deck (now that someone has opened the door) to Kiku, but thankfully the majority of them are walking on their own. I see Gil run below deck with Lovi in his arms, but force myself to not focus on him; as captain I have to worry about the ship as a whole, not individual people.

Thankfully for our wounded, most of the fighting happened on the _Tomate_, so they don't have to move across ships, but that makes it much harder to deal with the enemy. I decide to keep them all on the deck of their own ship, so they are easier to guard and separated as much as they can be from the injured, but that also means that we have to carry them across ships. I join Francis' group to help out with this, and so after everyone is tied up, I find myself carrying person after person onto the _Voda_. Once I get them to the ship, I use the ropes that are already around their wrists to tie them to the railing of the ship.

At one point, I find myself carrying the woman who threw the knife that may or may not have killed my Lovi. I am very tempted to drop her into the water and let her drown, but I fight the urge, and tie her to the ship like all the others.

Once the last are tied up and on the ship, I stop to breathe. Sometime during the battle; my arm had been cut, but it was a minor injury. However, all the work was making it worse. I _would_ go to Kiku to treat it, but I'm scared of what I might find if I did go to him. What if Lovino is dead? I want to know what condition he's in, but know that if I find that he is in fact gone I'll be unable to run the ship. I'll have to wait until everything's done before I go to check on him.

Instead, I decide to treat my own wound. Someone had brought some rubbing alcohol and bandages up on deck for that purpose, so people who weren't desperately hurt could take care of themselves until Kiku could. After I clean and bandage the wound (It'll need stitches eventually but it's fine for now), I help some of the others trying to do the same. The entire time, I am trying to figure out what exactly I should do with the crew of the _Ledyanaya Voda._

* * *

**Gil's POV**

I rush down to Kiku with Lovi in my arms, and Mathew follows close behind. Thankfully Birdie is better than most of us at first aid, he was able to stop most of the bleeding. Unfortunately Lovino had still lost a lot of blood before Birdie came, so he is in really bad condition.

I run into one of the two main sleeping quarters (the cleaner one) where Kiku is standing, everything already prepared to treat the injured. The medical cabin is too small to hold more than a few people, so whenever he expects many people to be hurt, he sets up his equipment in here.

He takes one look at Lovino, and his eyes widen slightly before he tells me to lie him down on one of tables he has made by pushing a few of the chests that usually lay at the bottom of each hammock together. He quickly examines Lovino, and then pulls out some alcohol and a needle and thread.

"He is lucky he's unconscious, this would hurt him a lot otherwise." While he works, he also continues to talk to Birdie and I. When he takes the makeshift bandage off him, he looks impressed. "Who did this? Whoever it was did a very good job taking care of him."

"That was me." Mathew says quietly.

"You are very good at this. If you don't mind I would like for you to help me out with treating the wounded, it will take me a while to fix him up and so I will need someone to help the others." Birdie nods. Others have already started coming in, and he moves over to help them out. I'm not really a fan of the whole _blood_ thing (definitely _not_ because it freaks me out or anything, it's just to unawesome for me to have to deal with), so after a few more seconds I slip out of the room to see where else I can help.

As I walk up to the deck, I find myself praying that Lovino (and Feliciano) will be okay. Both Toni and Lud would be completely devastated if he didn't pull through, so I hope with everything that I have that he (they) will be fine.

* * *

**Ludwig's POV**

I head below deck of the _Voda _with the others, grateful to have something to do. I had seen Feli (technically I think it was 'Lovino' at the time, but still) bleeding on the ground, and if I didn't have something to do, I would probably have completely shut down at this point.

As we walk down (the other crew hadn't even locked the door, apparently they didn't much care what happened to anyone below), we quickly find the medic.

She is in a small cabin with nothing but a few cots and some medical equipment, obviously the medical cabin. The woman is fairly tall with short hair. The top few buttons of her white shirt look like they have broken off (I can see why), and she is kneeling on the floor crying.

When we walk in, she looks up, and then begins to sob again, begging us not to kill her.

"We're not going to kill you." I say as soon as I find an opening in her sobs. "You're the medic right?" she nods, "We're going to let you go up on deck and heal those of your crew. We won't hurt you unless you attack anyone." She nods, and then begins to grab some of her medical supplies and stuff them into a small bag. "Sadiq, Heracles, you two guard her and make sure she doesn't do anything she shouldn't. They nod and begin to lead her up on deck, arguing with each other the entire way up (it probably wasn't a smart idea to pair them together, oh well).

After that, we go on to search the rest of the ship. We don't see anyone else, until we find the brig. When I open the door into the room, I can see that it is similar to the one on the _Lucha Tomate_; the most obvious difference is that it is quite a bit larger. The other thing different from the _Tomate_ is that there are many whips hung up on the walls, and there is a table with a case of knives in the far corner. There are also a set of chains on this side of the bars, separate from the cell.

When I look into the side of the room where prisoners would be kept, I see three figures huddling together in a corner. After a few moments, they seem to notice me, and one of them stands up straight and comes towards the bars.

"You're not Ivan." He says simply in a cracked and pained sounding voice.

"No, I'm not. I'm Ludwig, first mate of the _Lucha Tomate_. We have taken this ship. What is the reason you are being held here?" I have a feeling I know the answer, if my assumptions are correct, but I still ask to make sure.

"We're just merchants. Ivan attacked our ship; he kept us three here as prisoners so that he could…" He trails off and glances nervously at the wall with the whips. I nod, that was what I had expected.

I tell one of the crew members to open the door to the cell, and he quickly picks the lock. As soon as the door is open, the man who spoke earlier, a medium sized man with shoulder length brown hair, quickly steps through the door, while the other two stay back. Eventually the taller of the two in the back wraps an arm around the shorter and moves them forward, although the smaller one seems to be trembling violently.

"My name is Toris," the brunette man says, "And these are my brothers, Eduard" He points to the taller man, "and Ravis", the shorter trembling one. "Please, do you have a doctor? My brothers and I are in extremely poor shape." I nod and then motion for the three to follow me. I can tell they have trouble walking, and so I tell three of my men to help them out.

The seven of us slowly move across to the _Tomate_ and to where Kiku is treating patients, while I order the rest of my group to stay and search the rest of the ship (now that all the people are out of there, they can start collecting valuables). I stay with them up until the door to the cabin, but then turn away and go back to the top deck, ordering my men to stay with the brothers. I have to make sure everything that needs doing is done before I check on Feliciano; otherwise I might not be able to continue.

When I get up on deck, I see that most of the work dealing with prisoners is done, and I see Antonio leaning against the rail thinking. I go over to join him, and we start to plan on how to deal with the ship full of prisoners.


	17. Chapter 17

**Mathew's POV**

"We're close enough now!" I shout down to Gil while also setting off a signal to the other ship. I'm currently back in the crow's nest (it's like my second home up here), and we're now close enough to the shore to carry out our plan to deal with the enemy crew.

Gil runs over to where Antonio is standing, and Antonio starts shouting orders to the rest of the ship. I can see the same happening on the _Voda_ with Ludwig calling out the orders. Finally the anchors are down and we come to a complete stop. The men who had been manning the _Voda_ let down the small boats from the side of the ship, and steer them over to the _Tomate_, where I'm currently stationed. Ropes are thrown down, and the boats are tied and pulled up. From my perch, I can see one woman I had never seen before along with the rest of the crew. I have a feeling that's probably the former medic of the _Voda_; Gil had said that she had asked to join our crew, at least until all the wounded are healed. Kiku needs all the help he can get (I'm only up here because we need everyone who isn't injured to man both ships) so Antonio had accepted her offer.

Once everyone is back aboard the _Tomate,_ Antonio sets off a flare and then raises the anchors so we can move on. We move quickly, and are quickly out of sight of the other boat.

We had moved the two boats up near land, practically next to the headquarters for the Police Navy, a group of independent ships that hunted true pirate ships (they _usually_ let us be), as well as generally keeping peace on the seas. They will respond to the flare and quickly come across the _Voda_. She was one of the most wanted ships out there, and the Police Navy would be more than happy to deal with her crew.

Of course, they would be happier if they could get all the valuables on her back, but we _were_ pirates after all. I give off a small smile, we had gotten out of probably the hardest fight of our lives with very few serious injuries, and we had managed to give the other side justice without killing them.

Soon, another guy comes up the crow's nest to relieve me, and I head below deck to help Kiku again. We had fewer major injuries than we had feared, but Kiku, and the new medic, still need as much help as possible.

* * *

**Eduard's POV- Four Days Later**

"Kiku. Umm, Toris told me that you should probably check out the cuts on my back, he says one of them is starting to look red."

"Katyusha, can you handle that?" Kiku asks in a polite voice.

Until now, I hadn't even noticed her being in the room. Once I see her, I feel my heartbeat speed up, and I take a small step back.

"Of course." She responds, walking towards me. My knees start to wobble, and then I feel them hit the ground before I feel nothing. Nothing until

_Pain. My pain and my brothers' pain. Pain that would have been much worse had Toris not stepped in between Captain Ivan and me. A lash of a whip, cutting across the bare skin of my back. Screams that I held back for Ravis' sake. Screams that eventually were set free. Pain. And then, less. Only the remainders of it. A woman, bandaging up my wounds, hot salty tears falling from her face and onto me. I should be grateful that I am being healed, but I know that I am only being healed in preparation for more pain. There is always more pain._

"Eduard. Eduard get up." I cringe at the voice. It doesn't sound violent, but I still don't trust it. "Eduard it's me, Kiku. Remember? You are on board the _Lucha Tomate._ No one will hurt you here. Remember?"

I do remember. The past few days come back to me, and I quickly sit up, feeling embarrassed. Kiku looks relieved (at least I think he does, all of his emotions look mostly the same), and that woman is crying a few feet behind me.

"I'm so sorry for being involved in hurting you. I was only on that ship only to try to keep my little brother safe, but I'm sorry. Ivan doesn't need protection, he needs punishment. I am so sorry." She's still crying, and I felt awful that it's because of me.

"It's alright, it's not your fault, seeing your face just made me… remember" I don't think my words helped, but thankfully Kiku intercedes.

"Katyusha, will you please watch the patient while I take a look at Eduard's back.

"Of course." She responds, quickly drying her eyes on her sleeve and walking over to a cot in the back of the room. From where I am, I can't see who is laying on it.

Kiku quickly examines my back and then rubs some sort of salve on it before bandaging it up again. "It should be fine; you'll just have to come back here for the next few days so I can apply this to it." I nod and am about to leave the room, when I hear the sobbing from Katyusha starting up again.

"Kiku, the fever's even higher than it was earlier, and he doesn't look like he's getting any better." Kiku nods, and then walks over to the cot in the back. I don't watch what he's doing much, since I don't know anything about medicine, but I can see he is obviously worried about whoever he was trying to treat.

"That's all I can do. Hopefully his fever will somehow break soon, if not…" He trails off, his implications clear.

"If you don't mind me asking, what's going on?" For the past few days, my brothers and I had been staying mostly to ourselves so we don't really know what is happening on the ship.

"That's Feliciano, I mean Lovino, I mean…" He trails off, confusing me. He continues before I can ask him what he means though. "He got hurt in the battle and almost bled out. He's been unconscious ever since because of all the blood he lost. We thought he was starting to get better, we were even hoping he would wake up soon, but in the past couple hours he's only been getting worse." At this, Katyusha starts crying even harder and Kiku quickly tells her to take a break on deck before he continues. "He has a high fever that's rising rapidly, and his wound clearly got infected somehow. I've done all I can do to help him. I gave him medicine, cleaned and even drained his wound. Nothing helped. Unless something miraculous happens; we'll be having a funeral soon."

He speaks with a calm and clinical voice, but I can hear the pain and sadness in it. He obviously hates the fact that there is nothing he can do to save this man, hates waiting on a miracle.

Wait.

"Kiku, how far are we from our destination, the place where we asked to be dropped off?" Kiku looks surprised by my sudden change in topic, but he answers anyways.

"About a day and a half, why?"

"Can he make it that long?" I ask urgently.

"Maybe. If my predictions are correct, he had around a day or two left. Why do you want to know? You should know, I'm just as qualified as any doctor on land."

"I know. I'm not talking about doctors. I'm talking about miracles." Kiku gives me a strange look but I continue anyway. "We asked you to take us to Tino; he's one of my best friends. I know him because he owns some ships that I've worked on before." Kiku continues to look at me strangely, and I decide to hurry my story along. "He lives with four others. And one of them, Lukas something, is apparently a very good healer- no not a healer-stronger than that. He has magic, real magic. I've heard stories of him bringing people back from near death. If anyone can save… whatever you said his name is, it would be him."

Kiku looks at me with what looks like hope in his eyes. "Lukas Bondevik?" He asks.

"Oh yeah, that's it. Have you met him?"

"No, I… had a friend who knew him. Are you sure he's there?"

I nod. "As of the last time I visited, about six months ago, he was at least. I met him, and he didn't seem like he was about to leave."

As soon as I tell Kiku this, he practically sprints out of the room. A minute or so pass, and then Katyusha walks back in, saying that Kiku had ran to her to ask her to come back before running off somewhere else. That's odd; Kiku didn't seem like one to run much at all.

I continue to stand in the middle of the room for another moment, before shrugging and going back to my brothers.

* * *

**Antonio's POV**

I down another mug of beer, but when I reach out to refill it, an arm blocks my access. My eyes follow the arm up to a body, and see Francis at the end of it. Looking past him, I see Ludwig also being kept from his beer by Gil.

Why are they keeping us from drinking? Lovino still hadn't gotten better, and apparently his wound had gotten infected. I think this is a pretty good time for me to get drunk out of my mind, at least then I could forget my pain and worries for a night.

I continue to glare at Francis, asking with my eyes what the hell he was doing. "Kiku is trying to talk to the two of you." I turn to look at the door, where Kiku was standing looking excited.

"Is my Lovi better?!" I shout excitedly, running up to him. Ludwig asks a similar question but remains in his own seat.

"No, he's worse." Then why was he looking so excited? "However, if we get to land, to the three brothers' friend's house soon, we may be able to save him. There's a healer there, who has magic that may be able to heal Lovino and Feliciano.

Ludwig responds before I can, his voice sounding depressed and uncaring. "There is no such thing as magic."

"Maybe not, but you should know, unless a miracle or _magic_ happens, they are dead."

I can tell Ludwig is about to respond again, but I cut him off again before he can. "Alright Ludwig, tell the crew to pick up the pace. We'll go as fast as we can, the crew can rest when we get to land." Once again he tries to talk, probably to tell me that it would be useless to do so. "You heard him. If this doesn't work, they'll die. I don't believe in magic either, but if there's even the smallest chance it will work, I'm willing to look past my pride enough to try. Are you?"

He hesitates, so long that I almost consider making Gil my temporary first mate until after we get to land. Right before I speak though, he replies. "Fine, I suppose it won't hurt." With that, he quickly moves out of the room.

For the first time, I hope magic is actually real. If not, then I have lost the person I love most in my life.

* * *

**Eduard=Estonia**

**Toris=Lithuania**

**Ravis=Latvia**

**Katyusha=Ukraine**

**Tino=Finland**

**Lukas=Norway**

**AN: Wow, I really apparently really like cliff hangers… anyways… if you've made it down here you've probably read the chapter, so that means one thing. You can review now! Yay! I'm sure you're really excited about it, so I'll stop talking so you can go ahead and do that (pretty please).**


	18. Chapter 18

**AN:Thank you thank you thank you to everyone who reads, follows, favorites, and reviews this story. I am passionately in love with every single one of you (or something like that). You guys are great, and make me so extremely happy. Thank you so much for supporting me and whatnot, and please read and then type your feelings into the little box at the bottom of this page!**

* * *

**Ludwig's POV**

We make it to land in less than a day. At first the crew wasn't happy about being pushed so hard, but once they found out it was to save someone's life (or in some minds two lives), they pushed themselves as hard as they could.

Antonio seems to have cheered up a bit, and so has Kiku. In fact, everyone on the ship who heard about the so called _magician_ has cheered up. I don't know why.

We all know there is no such thing as magic, except for maybe Kiku. Why are they all getting their hopes up over something that can never be? I have already given up on Feliciano ever waking up.

I know that's true, so why am I running through the streets with him cradled in my arms as fast as I can? I guess I must just be going along with everyone else, I am definitely not holding out hope for Feli to live. Hoping would only make it hurt worse when it doesn't happen. Nevertheless, I continue to run as fast as I can… just so the others won't pester me.

In less time than seems possible, I arrive at the doorstep of a large mansion just outside of the small port town we had landed at. The town hadn't been too happy about us showing up, but when they heard out reason for being here, they let us be.

Antonio, who had run with me, knocks on the door loudly. When after a second no one answers, he starts banging on it. I look around, and see that Gilbert has just caught up with us. In the far distance, pretty much as far back as I could see, the brothers and Kiku are walking as fast as they can, with Kiku helping Toris (who is in the worst condition of the three).

Eventually, the door swings open to reveal a teenage looking boy with platinum hair. He looks over at me and then at Feliciano, then waves a hand to show us in. Antonio and I walk into the room, while Gil waits outside for the four lagging behind.

"There are people here for you Lukas." He says in a loud yet monotone voice. After a moment another man walks into the room. This one looks like he's in his twenties, but I have a feeling that he's a good deal older than that. The man has blond hair pinned back by a cross shaped pin, and has a face as monotonous as the teen's voice.

"What was that?" The man asks in a deadpan.

The teen glares at him for quite a few moments before muttering something that sounded like "There are people for you _Brother_," before walking away.

After the teen is completely out of the room, the man, assumedly Lukas, walks out of the room into a hallway, motioning for us to follow. We get to a large room with a single bed in it, and he motions for me to lay Feli down on the bed. I do as he asks, but remain standing by Feli, still holding on to his hand.

"Now leave."

"What?" I ask. I don't even know this guy, why would I trust him enough to leave him alone with Feli?

"I said leave. I can't heal him with your aura's clogging up the air. I _am_ assuming you two came for me to heal him." We both nod. "Then leave the room."

I'm about to protest further, but Antonio nods again. I look at him questioningly. "It's our only chance, he's dead otherwise. Please, at least let him try." I nod and then walk out of the room. Antonio follows quickly behind me. We exit back to the main room, and sit down in the chairs.

In a few hours, I would be proven right in the fact that magic doesn't exist. And then… my Feli would be gone forever. Or maybe, just maybe, I would be proven wrong, and he would somehow be saved.

I have never wanted to be wrong so much in my life before.

* * *

Hours pass. A few minutes after we had sat in the living room, we were joined by Kiku, Gilbert, and the three brothers, along with Tino, their friend who had come from another room. Everyone but Antonio and I had been attempting to make casual conversation, while the two of us stared silently into space, thinking about the life of the person most important to us.

I was so lost in my own thoughts; I almost didn't notice it when Lukas walked back into the room. I was only jolted out of my thoughts when he started talking. "He's stable; you can go in there if you want to. As soon as Lukas speaks, Antonio is out of his seat running to the door, with Lukas following irritably behind him, muttering something about disruptive auras. I slowly get up and follow the two. I force the hope that is growing inside me down, he said stable not better. He probably just meant that his fever had risen as far as it will go. He is most likely just giving us a chance to say goodbye. There's no way that he could mean that he was…

Completely healed. When Antonio opens the door I see Feli, and he looks like he had never gotten an infection. His shirt is off, so I could see that the wound is still there (so not completely healed I suppose), but other than that, he looks completely healthy. His skin is a good color, and his breathing's no longer as ragged like it had been earlier.

I hear Antonio gasp, but I barely register it, staring at Lukas, and then Feli again. The two of us just stare at Feli (or in Antonio's case, Lovino), until Lukas clears his throat, breaking us out of our dazes.

Antonio looks over at Lukas, and then begins to hug him. Lukas quickly pushes Antonio off, and then begins to straighten out his clothes, glaring at him.

"When will he wake up?" I ask.

"Probably in about a week."

"A week? He looks completely healthy."

"Yes he does. I'll explain everything in the front room; your aura is affecting the magic." What was with him and auras? Regardless, I follow him back to the living room, and then look at him questioningly.

Lukas begins talking again, this time to everyone sitting in the room.

"Like I said, he will probably wake up in about a week, although he won't be able to leave for at least a month."

"Why?" I ask suspiciously. Feliciano looks like he's about to wake up any minute. I look over at Antonio to see if he's sharing my misgivings, but he looks like he's on cloud nine because of Feli/Lovino's healing. I don't blame him, the only reason I'm not is because someone has to stay down to earth.

"It'll take him a week to wake up because I had to use a good deal of his own energy to heal him, I didn't have enough of my own to spare. He'll be fine, but he will have to sleep to gain it back." I nod. His words are hard to believe, but no harder than anything else I've heard. I guess this magic thing _might_ have _some_ basis in reality, there's no other way Feli could be so fully healed.

"Okay then~" Antonio begins, "We'll just wait here until then."

"No." Lukas rebuts. "I'll let the hurt kid stay because I have to make sure the magic doesn't go wrong, but I'm not letting pirates stay here. And no, you can't stay in the town either; no one would be willing to house you."

Antonio looks upset, although he still looks absolutely ecstatic in comparison to how he was acting earlier in the day. "What are we supposed to do then?" He asks.

"Leave, come back in a month, he'll stay with us until then."

"Why can't we just take him with us now?" I ask. He looks pretty much fine, nothing that Kiku can't handle.

"Magic is always tricky, and I had to rush it more than I usually would to save the kid. The month isn't just for him to heal in peace; it's also for the magic to die down. If I don't keep an eye on it, it might backfire somehow, and end up hurting him." I don't really understand what he is saying, but choose not to argue. I look over at Antonio; I don't really know what we should do, so I'll let our "fearless captain" make the decision.

"Alright fine, we'll be back in a month; we'll also discuss payment for your services at the time." Lukas nods accepting his answer. In a matter of minutes Antonio, Gil, Kiku, and I are ushered out the door, with Ravis, Toris, and Eduard staying behind.

Right before we leave the house completely, Lukas stops Antonio and me.

"You should know, that kid has a weird aura, as if there are two people there." Antonio and I look at each other, "But I have a feeling you both already knew that. You probably think it's all in his head or something." I'm the only one who responds, nodding slightly. "You're wrong. He, _they_, have a web of black magic all through them, down to their very core. You can choose whether or not you believe me, but some kind of sorcerer or wizard made them into what they are today." With that he shuts the door in our faces.

Normally, I wouldn't believe such an unbelievable statement, but so far Lukas had proven himself. Which means that Feli… and Lovi… were telling the truth.

* * *

**AN: Hey look guys, it's not a cliffhanger! In fact, this chapter actually had a fairly happy ending. (It feels so weird, like I'm breaking some sort of personal rule or something). Also, I finally have the Nordics in here (you have no idea how happy that makes me, even if they're not going to be a HUGE part of the rest of the story).**

**So anyways, thank you for reading this *insert adjective here* chapter, and please review below to fill in the adjective place holder (or whatever else you want to say)!**


	19. Chapter 19

**AN: Hey look guys; it's an update, on a Tuesday! So I'm a little off schedule, but I am now on Thanksgiving break (and I had a two hour delay today) so I'm in a good mood and have decided to post tonight (I'll probably post more chapters than usual this week, just cause)!**

**Also, I am two reviews away from one hundred… OH MY FREAKING GOSH! I love you all, every single one of you who review, and even those who don't. I don't really know why yall read this, but I'm so glad you do, and I hope you all continue to!**

**I wish I could do something for all of you, but alas, I don't know what to do (I would do a oneshot thingy for the 100****th**** reviewer but I don't really know how to write on command so…). So just know that I love all of you!**

* * *

**Feli's POV**

"Wake up already. Lukas says that you've gotten all your energy back, so if you're still asleep you're just being lazy, so get up."

I slowly blink open my eyes, trying to figure out what is going on. The last thing I can remember is Lovi jumping us in front of a knife, and then nothing. "_Are you alright Lovi?"_

_"Yeah I'm fine, but I'm just as confused as you are."_

Once my eyes fully focus, I see a small man (he's still taller than us though) standing in front of me with his arms crossed, looking really bored.

"Good you're up."

"Ve~. Where am I?" Wait did I get captured or something? I suddenly realize I'm not on a boat and start breathing quickly. Where am I? What happened to me? And more importantly, what happened to Luddy? I quickly look around the room, but I can't see him, or anyone else other than the teen, anywhere. What if he got captured, or killed. Or what if while I was out, a giant army of…"

"_Calm down idiot. Freaking out won't do us any good." _ I force myself to listen to Lovi's advice, although I can tell he's just as freaked out about Antonio.

"Calm down." The teen says monotonously, in a way that isn't comforting at all.

"Ve! Where is everyone?" I ask nervously, once again looking around the room just in case something has changed.

"Probably on their ship. You got hurt, and they took you here to get healed. Lukas told them to leave; they are supposed to pick you up in a month." I look at him still confused and freaked out. Who's Lukas, and why am I with him? How do I know he's not just lying and trying to get my trust so that he can do something bad to me? "You _do _want them to pick you up right?" I nod quickly; I don't want to be left here forever. "So by the way, what's your name? They never told us."

I hesitate a second, but then reply, deciding to trust him for now. "Umm… Feliciano, but most people just call me Feli." I decide to go with my name since I'm doing the introductions and not Lovi.

"And what about the other one in there?"

I freeze up. Does he mean Lovi? How does he know about that? I try to stutter out a response, but I have no clue what to say. Lovi isn't helping with how loud he is yelling. After a few moments, the guy seems to take pity on me, and cuts me off.

"Lukas has magic, that's why your friends took you here; you were about to die of an infection." I flinch, though I can't tell if it's because of the mention of the wound (that I suddenly realize I can still feel, quite painfully), or the mention of magic. "He could tell that there are two of you in there. So what's the other one's name, the guy who's not in charge?"

"Umm… Lovino. I would say to call him Lovi, but he'd probably curse you out when he gets back in charge if you did."

"Alright then Feli and Lovino. Hope you get used to this place quickly, you're here for about three more weeks. I'm Emil by the way." He begins to walk out of the room, but turns back at the last second, "Dinner's in about an hour, someone will bring it to your room since you're not allowed to walk yet."

* * *

**Lovi ****_(It's Lo-Vi-No Dammit)_****'s POV- Four Days Later**

About time they let me out of that stupid bed.

_"But Lovi, they didn't let us out; we're still supposed to not move."_

"_Well, I can walk, and no one, but you, is trying to stop me."_ Feli drops it, and lets me continue on. I make it all the way to what looks like the living room before I have to stop and sit down in one of the chairs. It's much harder to move than I thought it would be, if I had known it would hurt this much I would have waited in bed for a few days more. Maybe. Probably not. It was so boring stuck in bed seeing no one but Lukas (the sorcerer/healer) and his brother Emil, who were the ones who would bring me my meals and change my bandages (they were also the two most boring people I had ever met).

The only reason I had been able to get out, was because Lukas and Emil were preoccupied taking care of the three brothers that had apparently also been brought here by Antonio and the others. One of them had an infection or something- nothing serious, but Lukas would be concentrating too hard on him to watch out for my aura or whatever the hell it was he did (I had tried to get up yesterday but he had _sensed_ me trying to move).

When I had decided to chance getting up, I had been hoping to explore the house and then sneak back into bed, but I currently can't move from where I am, so I guess I'm staying here.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" I look up and see a short (even shorter than Emil, maybe even my height) man, with blond hair, and (dare I say it) an extremely adorable face.

"Who the hell are you?" I answer in response.

"I'm Tino; I'm one of the people who live here. I assume you're either Feli or Lovino."

"Lovino." I reply shortly.

"Oh well then, hello Lovino. Oh! And hello to you too Feli!" I nod slightly at him. This guy seems overly cheerful, but for some reason it isn't (extremely) annoying like when other people (*cough*Antonio*cough*) are. "Wait, aren't you still supposed to stay in bed?"

Crap. "Leave me alone. I'll do what I want bastard."

"Why are you calling my wife a bastard?"

Again, crap. Without me knowing, a tall, blond (seriously was there anyone who _wasn't_ blond in this house?!), very intimidating man had come into the room.

"Oh, it's okay Ber. I don't think he meant it. And I told you to not call me your wife in front of strangers." The man (Ber?) looks at Tino a moment before looking back at me. No scratch that, glaring back at me.

"Don't call my wife a bastard." He says to me flatly but angrily. In that moment I realize that I can indeed still move. I get up and try to run out of the room. I can feel the tall man's glare begin to burn a whole in my back, and I am so focused on trying to figure out what I'm going to do when my shirt bursts into flames from it, that I don't even see another man standing in the doorway to the hall.

When I bump into him, he grabs me to keep me from falling and then laughs loudly. "Hey look Berwald, the new kid already can't get his hands off me." The man is quite tall (not as tall as the other man, Berwald I guess), and blond (another one… great ).

I quickly push him off me. "Don't touch me bastard." After I speak, I nervously ( I mean… fearlessly…) glance at Berwald expecting him to get mad at me for calling this guy a bastard, but he actually seems to be (almost) smiling at it.

"Aw come on. Why you gotta be like that? I already got Lukas and Waldo hating on me. I don't need another person doing it." As he's talking, Lukas and Emil walk into the room, Lukas glaring at me briefly for being out of bed. Emil walks by and sits down, while Lukas smacks the idiot on the back of the head.

"The only reason we always 'hate on you' is because you're an idiot Mathias." Mathias argues back, and I decide to take it as my opportunity to slip out of the room. Before I get all the way out though, I hear Lukas turn and speak to me.

"I need to talk to you later Lovino, after I deal with this idiot." I nod and keep walking, quickly leaving the room before anything else happens.

* * *

"What aren't you telling me Lovino?" I jump a bit when I hear Lukas, I must have dosed off while waiting for him. He's standing right inside the doorway of my room, looking irritated (while still somehow looking completely blank). When I don't respond to his question, he continues. "I can tell there is more to your curse than you two have told us. I can see it in your auras; I just can't tell what exactly it is." I told them only what Feli had told Toni and Ludwig, leaving out the same thing that he did.

"I don't know what you're talking about; I told you everything about our curse. I…" He cuts me off.

"Shut up. I know you're not telling the truth, and I hate being lied to. If it helps, I swear not to tell your crew; although I have a feeling they would want to know. After everything that has happened, I think if you told them they would believe you."

"_What do I do Feli? He knows we're not telling everything we know. He's not going to freaking drop it either"_

_"I think… I think you should tell him. He said he won't tell the crew, and I think that if you don't tell him he might get really angry. Besides, I think it might feel good to tell the whole truth."_ I nod slightly, and then glance up at Lukas.

"Fine idiot, I'll tell you, but I don't want anyone else to know." He nods slightly, and leans against a wall before motioning for me to continue.

* * *

**Third Person POV**

_"But that is only part of your punishment. You have taken her away, and I want you to feel my pain, and one day you will. This curse will not last forever. Don't get your hopes up though. There will still be only one of you when it is gone, just in a more literal way._

_"One of you will go on, with none of my magic affecting you for the rest of your life. The other will be dead. There is nothing you can do to stop it, when you turn twenty, there will be only one of you left alive. _

_"And it won't just all be by chance; whoever survives will be responsible for the other's death. Whoever has the strongest will to live when the time comes, will survive. The other will be pushed away into oblivion."_

_Tears run down the boys' face. They try to shout out, to convince the man to take back his curse, but he is gone in a flash. Once he is gone, the magic holding them down is released, and they fall to the ground sobbing._

* * *

**Lovino's POV**

I wipe tears out of my eyes, too emotional to even care that Lukas is watching me cry.

"That doesn't sound like something Arthur would do." He responds after my eyes finally dry.

"You know that bastard!?" I shout at him in a sudden surge of surprise and anger.

"Yes, I used to travel with him and one other around two years ago, for about a year and a half. I wasn't surprised about him casting the first part of the curse, he always seemed dark, but I'm surprised that he made it so one of you would die, you two must have really upset him somehow."

"Wait, if you knew him, why didn't you say so earlier." He shrugs, not answering my question.

"How old are you now?" He asks.

"Nineteen, I'll turn twenty in… a little less than five months now."

He looks surprised at our age (like that's new), but recovers quickly. "I wish that there was something I could do, but a curse like this can only be reversed by the one who cast it." I nod; I honestly hadn't even considered the fact that he might be able to lift the curse. "If you could find Arthur though, he might be able to do something."

I perk up slightly when he says this, although I don't really let my hopes get up.

"I don't know where he is, but Vladimir might." He mutters to himself, before speaking to me again. "I might know someone who can find him, but you'll have to wait until your crew comes back to start searching. I need to go now. Don't get up again until I tell you you can." With that, he turns and leaves the room without another explanation.

"_Lovi… does this mean there's a chance?"_

_"I… I don't know Feli. It sounds like it, but we can't get our hopes up. Even if we find Arthur, he probably won't reverse what he's done. B-but, there is a chance, more of a chance we have ever had."_

_"You're right Lovi. I- I really want to be able to hug you again fratello. I miss being able to do that."_

_"I know fratello, me too. I m-mean, so I can smack you without hurting myself obviously."_

_"Of course Lovi."_

* * *

**AN: Vladimir= Romania**

**So I'm curious, who was surprised by that, and who saw it coming? This will definitely add a sense of urgency to things (and hopefully explain some of the brother's actions), so review to tell me what you think of it!**


	20. Chapter 20

**Oh my Gosh! 100 Reviews! I honestly don't even know what to say. I love all of you, and I am mentally hugging everyone who reviewed (people who read but didn't review get a hug to, just like… a church hug or something)! I love you all so much! Also, sorry for the late post, yesterday confused me and I just now realized I'm supposed to post today.**

Antonio's POV

Finally, today is the day I get to see my little Lovi again! The past month had been horrible, not knowing where he was or what he was thinking. Despite that though, the time apart had only made my feelings for him stronger, and each day away from him had been longer than the one before.

Maybe, just maybe, the separation had done the same thing to him. Maybe now he would let us be together!

"Tonio! We have been docked for the past ten minutes. Are you planning on getting off?" I quickly glance up and see Francis looking at me expectantly. I only now notice that I can see the shore, as well as the small boat that is being prepared to be let down (I had told the men to anchor somewhere near an empty beach so that we didn't have to worry about the villagers' response to us this time).

I quickly run over to the boat and jump in. Once I am in, I see that I'm the last person to board (there aren't many of us who are going to land). After I'm in, we're quickly lowered. We aren't far from shore, but the ride seems to take forever.

Once I'm on the sand, I start running to where I (think) I know Lukas's home is, after only a brief moment getting used to solid land. After several minutes, I'm standing at the door to the mansion, with only Ludwig next to me, just like last time.

However, last time I was filled with horror and desperation, while now I'm overcome with happiness and excitement. I knock on the door, and then step back. While I wait for the door to open, I start bouncing up and down on the balls of my feet, barely able to stay in one spot. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Ludwig barely suppressing a smile.

After _forever_, I hear the handle of the door turn, and see Lovino opening the door, with a huge smile on his face. As soon as he sees us, he runs over to Ludwig and practically jumps into his arms. Oh. It's Feliciano, not Lovino.

I have to suppress a wave of jealousy towards Ludwig. Not because he's hugging Lovi's body, although I wasn't exactly _happy_ about that, but because his relationship seems so perfect.

The two seem to hug forever, with Feli belting out words of love and appreciation, and Ludwig blushing and quietly returning them. I stand awkwardly to the side as they catch up, not wanting to ruin their moment, but also not knowing what to do.

Eventually, the moment is broken by someone clearing their throat on the other side of the still open door. Feli mostly lets go of Ludwig (he still keeps his hand) and the two turn to see who's trying to get their attention.

On the other side of the door is Lukas looking completely bored out of his mind.

"Now pay me quickly so I can get you all out of my house." He says flatly. I have a feeling this guy really doesn't like us, although I don't know if it's because we're pirates or because we're … people.

"Ja. I have the money; can we go somewhere to discuss price?" Lukas nods, and he and Ludwig move into the house, while Feli and I remain awkwardly right outside the door. As captain, I probably should be the one to negotiate prices, but Ludwig's a lot better with money than I am, so I usually let him deal with that kind of thing.

"By the way, I never got to say hi Toni. Hi Toni!" Feli says excitedly after a few moments.

"Hey Feli, and uh… hi Lovi."

"So is anyone else coming?"

"No, it's just Ludwig and I, the others either wanted to stay on the ship or hang out on the beach."

"Oh, that sounds like fun! It's going to be great being back, I really missed everyone, especially Luddy~!"

"Yeah, the crew all missed you two too, it's great to have you both back. By the way, how are you feeling?"

"Ve~ almost completely better! We have a really big scar now, and it hurts a little if we move around too quickly, but everything else is fine!" That's a relief. "Oh also, by the way… Lovi really doesn't want me to tell you this… but he really missed you, a lot, like as much as I missed Luddy." That brings a big smile to my face, although it makes me kind of sad when I realize that Lovi never would have told me that himself.

"Also… I think that you shouldn't give up on Lovi. He really wants to be with you, and I want him to be happy. Keep trying; don't believe what he tells you, he's just trying to push you away. If you care about him as much as he cares about you, then you'll figure out a way to get him to open up. And remember, no matter what he says, Lovino loves you."

My mouth stretches into an even bigger smile, and I practically start jumping for joy. My happiness is only slightly lessened when I see Feli flinch at the mental cursing out he is obviously getting.

"Ve. I need to sit down. My head hurts." I let him go; I think I'd have a headache too if I had an angry Lovino yelling in my head.

After that, the wait for Ludwig is silent, with me brimming over with unconcealed happiness, and Feli holding his head having a (probably one-sided) mental argument with Lovi.

"Come on, we can leave now." I jerk up when I hear Ludwig speaking, but then jump to my feet happily. Soon we can get back to the ship, and everything can go back to how it should be!

Luddy's POV

"I'm tired Luddy, carry me?" I glance over to where Feli is looking at me pitifully. I know for a fact that he's tougher than he looks, and could easily make the walk, but decide to let it go. Ever since he had stopped hugging me, I had wanted an excuse to hold him again, and I suppose carrying him would somewhat count (I have a feeling that is why he asked too).

"Fine" I reply, and Feli excitedly jumps onto my back, not even needing me to kneel down or anything. Antonio and I walk for a while more in peaceful silence, until I decide to voice a thought I have been considering since I had started to believe in magic.

"So, the two of you, Feliciano and Lovino, really are under some sort of curse." I pause a moment before continuing in case Feli wanted to say anything. He nods slightly against my shoulder, but other than that stays silent. "So doesn't that mean it could be reversed somehow, and if so why didn't Lukas do anything?" Antonio looks stunned, as if he hadn't even thought of lifting the curse, but Feli just nods again before responding.

"It could be reversed, but only by the person who casted it."

"Do you have any idea where they are~?" Antonio asks excitedly.

"No, but Lukas knows a person who might be able to find him, Vladimir. He gave me a paper saying where he would probably be, along with a cute little map. It's in my back pocket."

"Why didn't you mention this before Feli?" I ask somewhat harshly. He's acting like he wouldn't have even brought it up if Antonio hadn't asked.

"Ve, I'm sorry! I didn't want to bring it up because I didn't make you guys feel like you had to go for me, so I just decided to forget about it, because it was a longshot anyways, and even if we did find the guy, he might not be able to find Arthur, and if we did find Arthur, he might still be mad, and he might curse you too, and then I would be even sadder, and then you would be sad and then…"

I decide to cut him off, since he's obviously not going to do that for himself any time soon. "Feli, you're rambling." At this, he stops talking and I think he starts to blush slightly, although I don't know why (It's a rare occasion when Feli _isn't _rambling).

"Of course we'll help you guys!" Antonio chimes in happily.

Feli lets off another one of his 'Ves' and then starts quietly humming as I continue walking towards the ship.

* * *

**Feli's POV-That Night**

"_I'm so glad to be back Lovi" _It had been a long day, but we were finally back at sea and in our hammocks.

_"Yeah, I guess I am too, although it means that I have to deal with Antonio again. And thanks to you, he's even further away from giving up."_

_"Oh come on fratello, we both know he wasn't going to give up on you any time soon. I did you a favor, you should let you guys get together. Then you can be happy" _I don't know why he won't let himself be happy, we both know he's going to be the one to survive.

"_I let you make your own decisions Feli, let me make mine. Now shut up, I'm tired." _I do as he asks and stop talking with him.

I think back over what had happened earlier today. Once we had gotten to the ship and after all the greetings with the rest of the crew, Antonio had taken Luddy and me down to his cabin to talk. I had shown him the paper Lukas had given me, and he had immediately started plotting a course to where Vladimir supposedly lives. By his guess, it would take about a week to get there, since we'd be taking our time and would also be restocking the ship along the way. I felt bad about making them all go out of their way for us, but Toni and Luddy wouldn't let me argue.

Lovi and I had decided to not tell them about our deadline, we didn't want to freak them out about it. We would either find Arthur and reverse the curse, or we wouldn't. I wasn't really very hopeful about a positive outcome at first, but Antonio and Ludwig were both very optimistic about it, and their high hopes are starting to rub off on me.

We would find Vladimir, and then Arthur and somehow convince him to take back his curse. And then Lovi and I would both be free to live and be with our loves' forever and ever.

* * *

**AN: Thanks for reading, and please review and help make my day! Also, I hope everyone (who celebrates it) has a great Thanksgiving tomorrow, and everyone else has an awesome day anyways!**


	21. Chapter 21

**Hey Guys! Sorry I didn't update yesterday, I was over at my friends' house cosplaying all yesterday and today and just now got home (our Youtube name is hetaliasistercosplay if you care), so I am updating now instead! Sorry it's so short... I have no excuse.**

**Also, thank you Roxi2Star; I really appreciate your constructive criticism, and I will do my best to use it to make any future writing better! Unfortunately, I have completed writing this story (I actually finished it all before starting to post it) so although I won't be able to change too much in this story, I can definitely use your advice in the future.**

**Speaking of which, I would love to hear some constructive criticism from anybody who had anything to say. I love all reviews, even when (and sometimes ****_especially_**** when) they point out something I could do better. So anyways, read on and then review!**

* * *

Dear Diary, Dear Journal, Dear

Fine, Dear Diary (happy now!?),

Hey, so it's been awhile since I've written in here, I'm not really into the whole "confess your feelings to an idiotic piece of paper" thing, but Feli's been bugging me to write.

So… what's been going on in my life… well it's about one month until Feli's and my birthday, so that fucking sucks. We got to Vladimir about a week and a half after we left shore; I guess I might as well write about that.

So, it took us about a week to get to him. It was a pretty normal week, but it was really annoying (though that was probably one of the things that _was_ normal about it). Ludwig and Feli were getting along better every freaking day, and I had to leave Feli alone a few times when he was in charge because I couldn't stand how happy the two of them were together.

It was also irritating because my stupid brother kept telling Toni all of my feelings and all that shit (he still does), so Toni wouldn't stop bugging me and trying to be all stupidly romantic. It's like he doesn't realize it's just as hard, if not harder, for me as it is for him. Does he think I like making the two of us miserable as hell?

But anyways, relationships (and non-relationships) aside, the journey was pretty peacefull. Once we docked though, it was hell.

Vladimir's house was pretty far inland, so we had to travel on foot for a while (not fun when you have a newly healed stab wound that still hurts when you move too much). His house was in the middle of nowhere, and the only way to get to it was to hike through this jungle… woods… thing. If that weren't bad enough, the guy had the whole place set up with magical booby traps; actually they were less of traps and more like practical jokes. We somehow managed to mostly avoid them all, but at one point I had run into one that freaking switched my hands and my feet for nearly a full day. Not only that, but I was the only one who had been affected by that one (Toni was laughing his ass of about it the entire time, the bastard). Even worse, that wasn't even the nastiest of them (although, I admit there were a few I liked, like the one that tuned all the beer Ludwig tried to drink back into barley, water, and yeast, or the one that made Toni unable to speak for an entire day). Finally, after a very long trip, we made it to Vladimir's house. We had been expecting a hard time when we got there, but he was already expecting us, having used his magic to watch us and find out our intentions (making me assume all the traps were simply for his viewing pleasure), and left to follow us back to the ship pretty much as soon as we showed up.

The way back was thankfully peaceful (I guess the Magic Bastard didn't want to get hit with any of his own pranks) and as soon as we got back to the boat, we started the search (the one we are still on). Before going on, I guess I should describe Vladimir.

He has shaggy light brown hair (Finally, someone else who isn't blond, I was starting to think we were all going extinct or something), and red eyes (making him and the Albino Bastard become best friends basically on sight). He also looked like he had fangs, and I'm still not sure he's completely 'human' (he always covers every inch of his body in clothes whenever he's outside, coincidence?!). He acts all happy all the time (even though he dresses in all black), but starts saying really disturbing things if you talk to him for too long. His magic seems to mostly focus on other people's magic, allowing him to understand and track it.

He, like Lukas, has no clue where Arthur was, but he used the curse on Feli and me to track the magic, although so far all the leads he followed have been wild goose chases.

He brought us to a lot of places that had leftover traces of Arthurs magic, but he was always far gone from the site (Vladimir could only tell how old magic was if he was near enough to it).

Another thing about Vladimir is that he can tell everything about a spell or curse just by being around it, meaning he knows all about our freaking deadline. He agreed to not tell anyone, but he's constantly bugging Feli and me to tell people ourselves.

So yeah, that's pretty much been everything that's been going on since we left shore. Toni's still bugging me about our feelings for each other, and it's been getting harder to find new ways to push him away. It's starting to seem like the only way to get him to drop it is to tell him the whole story. I'm thinking about it; Feli really wants to tell Ludwig, and if he goes through with that, I'll have to tell Toni (whether I want to or not).

I don't know, maybe it'll be nice not having secrets anymore… I'll think about it.

The past couple days have sucked, although Feli and I have managed to not show it. We've started feeling sick all the time, and as the days pass it's been getting worse. I'm not sure how we know, but we can tell it's because of the curse, and that we will get more and more ill until our birthday. So far, we just have a constant headache, sore muscles, and an upset stomach (I don't even want to imagine what it will be like in the days to come).

As of now, we are still up and around, and able to convince everyone we're fine, but I'm not sure how much longer that'll last.

…I'm really conflicted right now. Part of me really wants to spend the rest of my time until my birthday with Antonio, being happy while I can be, but at the same time, I love him too much to hurt him like that. It's tough though, because no matter what I do, I'll freaking hurt him. I just have to hope that I'm doing the thing that save him from the most pain.

I don't know, I guess I'll just figure things out as I go along.

I'm going to stop writing now. My head hurts too much to fully form thoughts, and my hand feels like it's on fire… so yeah.

Peace out bitches.


	22. Chapter 22

_**Two weeks until their birthday**_

**Feli's POV-**

_"Are you sure you're okay with this Lovi?" _

_"Yeah whatever, just get it over with."_

_"Thanks Lovi! By the way, do you think you could give me some privacy? If you don't mind of course."_

_"Yeah sure whatever." _ As Lovi's mind fades out of connection with mine, I breathe a sigh of relief. I can still feel him at the edge of my consciousness, but he's no longer connected to the senses of our body. It's a strange feeling, probably more so for him, but it's necessary.

Once I'm sure I'm 'alone', I walk over to where Ludwig is, on the opposite side of the deck as where I was standing, talking to someone else. The journey, though extremely short, _would_ be one of the most painful moments of my life, if every other one that day hadn't already been.

Every time I take a step, I feel like the joints in my knees are being crushed with a mallet, and every time I take a breath my entire body burns as if I'm aflame. Those are the main two pains that are currently assaulting me, but they were far from the only ones.

I shake my head (causing my splitting headache to get even worse) to try to keep myself from focusing on the pain. I then place an extra-large smile on my face, and tap Ludwig's shoulder. He turns around expectantly, and asks what I need.

"Whenever you're free, could I talk to you for a while, in private?"

He looks at me oddly, probably wondering what I need to say that I don't want to be accidentally overheard, but nods. I walk few feet away and lean against the railing to wait, allowing myself to grimace at the pain once I assure myself no one is watching me.

Once I get there, I set my eyes on Ludwig and watch him. Every once in a while, he'll glance over at me, and I'll quickly force a smile on my face until he looks away. Every time he looks, I can see the love brimming over in his eyes, and I hope he can read it in mine too.

It's not fair. I finally find a person who makes me completely and utterly happy, and now I have to leave him. A wave of fury and anger the level of which I've never felt before sweeps over me for a second before I quickly push it away, disgusted by the way it makes me feel. I should just be happy that I got to spend the last year of my life with this man.

Although I had loved him from the start, it was only a few months ago that I had learned that he returned the love, and since then we hadn't really moved any further in our relationship. In fact, most of the time we acted more like friends than anything else; we had only kissed a few times, and they were all over quickly.

I had a feeling he would be more than happy to be closer; I was always the one to pull away from an embrace, or cut a kiss short. It's not because I didn't want… _that_… but because it would be wrong to act on that want. After all, Lovi and I did share a body, and I wasn't about to take liberties with it that I wouldn't be comfortable with Lovi taking, and as much as I wanted Lovi to get together with Antonio, I did _not_ want to be that close to him.

The thought brings an embarrassed blush to my face, and it is still there when Ludwig finally walks up to me.

"What's wrong?" He asks me, but I just shake my head and smile at him (although I flinch a little at the pain that brings on). "All right then, so you said you want to talk in private. Do you want to come down into my cabin?"

"That sounds fine." I reply verbally, since head movements are currently excruciatingly painful. He nods and turns to go below deck, and I blush a little darker because of my previous thoughts and the fact that we were going to be alone in his cabin. However, the pain my body goes through by walking reminds me that that's far from what was going to happen.

Once we get to his cabin, and he closes his door, I plop down on the edge of his bed. He sits in a chair near where I am, and looks at me expectantly.

I take a deep breath, and try to figure out the best way to say what needs to be said. After a few moments I realize there is no way to make what I have to say any better, so I just decide to be blunt instead.

"Ludwig, I'm going to die in exactly two weeks." At first, I can tell that he can't make sense of what I said, and once he does he has a confused look on his face.

"I'm afraid I don't quite understand what you are saying." He's talking even more formally than usual, which I have figured out means that he's uncomfortable or confused.

"I should probably explain shouldn't I? I never told you the entire curse, there's a second part. On our twentieth birthday, exactly two weeks from now, either Lovi or I will die while the other will carry on, depending on who has the strongest will to live. That's going to be Lovi, so I'm going to die in exactly two weeks."

I can tell he doesn't believe me at first, thinks that I'm playing some sort of cruel joke, but once he realizes there isn't a punch line he starts freaking out. He starts muttering too quietly for me to hear, but even when he raises his voice to the point where he's all but screaming I still can't understand him because he's speaking in another language. He stands up and starts pacing across the room violently, his volume continuing to increase.

After his anger looks like it has peaked and begun to fall, I stand up and put my hands on his shoulders, stopping him in place. He glares at me, the emotions in his eyes a mix of pain and anger. "I'm sorry." I whisper, but that only adds to the fire in his eyes. He grabs my arms and squeezes hard, making me flinch and whimper in pain.

I know he isn't trying to hurt me, his grip probably isn't even that strong, but the sickness that has been growing turns even the smallest discomforts into the strongest pain.

As soon as he sees me flinch, the anger rushes out of him, leaving behind only pain and sadness. He looseness his grip, but doesn't let me go.

"Why-why didn't you tell me this earlier?"

"I just wanted to… I didn't want you to worry. I've always known this would be the way it ended. I'm so sorry." Looking at the pain in his eyes I instantly wish I had distanced myself like Lovi had; causing him pain hurt more anything I have ever felt before. "I'm so sorry." I repeat again, not being able to say anything else. Ludwig looks at me for a few seconds before pulling me into an embrace.

I lean my head into his chest, and he holds me tighter, which hurts but not enough to ruin the moment.

After an eternity of standing like that he unwraps one of his arms from me and uses it to lift my face towards him. Once he's sure I'm paying attention to him he starts speaking calmly, although I can hear the unshed tears in his voice.

"You will not die in two weeks." I start to try to shake my head, there's no way I could overpower Lovi, and I don't even know if I would want to, but he continues to talk anyways. "Neither of you will, we'll find Arthur before that, I promise."

My heart remains heavy despite his assurances, if we haven't found him in all these months we've been searching, how are we supposed to in two weeks? And even if we did, it was a small chance he would choose to take back his curse.

Despite my disbelief, I did what I'm best at and put on a smile, although it's not as large as the one I would usually have covering my face. There's no point in spending the last few days of my life depressed. Although it seems impossible, I will try to spend them happier than I have ever been, regardless of the physical and emotional pain that I will feel.

"Ludwig, I love you so much, and I will always love you no matter where I am in two weeks"

"I love you too Feliciano, but I know exactly where you will be in two weeks, and that is right next to me."

When he says that, he leans over, and I follow his lead by getting up on my toes. We meet halfway, and as soon as his lips meet mine, all the pain that was filling me disappears, replaced with a feeling of warmth and happiness. As the kiss continues, neither of us tries to push it any further, allowing it to remain innocent and warm.

When we finally pull back, I look up into Ludwig's eyes and see both the determination and the love in his them as he stares back down at me. I pull myself towards him, and let myself cry against his chest, and although he is silent, I'm pretty sure his face isn't dry either.

The thing I wasn't expecting was… the tears I'm crying are tears of joy. I never thought I would be loved by anyone this much in my whole life, other than maybe my brother. I might be leaving this world sooner than I would like, but at least I had experienced this before I had to go.

All of a sudden, being happy doesn't seem so impossible anymore.

* * *

**AN: Thanks so much for reviewing, and please please please keep doing so (I will internally hug you if you do)! Also, I want to mention one thing that some of you have picked up on. I realize that Feli and Lovi are underreacting to everything, but the way I see it they've known what was going to happen to them since they were little kids. It's not that they don't care, their just super resigned to it, and so they don't really show that much emotion about it anymore.**

**I don't know, that's just how I felt they would react, and I hope that comes across (and seems logical). Sorry if it doesn't…**

**Anyways, so please drop a little review in the little box below and help to make my day!**


	23. Chapter 23

**Lovino's POV-Four Days Later**

* * *

" …need to wake up. Wake up Feli and or Lovi. Common it's already almost noon." The sound of an annoyingly loud voice slowly brings me from my peace back into a world full of agony. I let the pain wash over me, trying to get reaccustomed to it before starting the day. Every morning when we wake up, Feli and I are sure that no greater pain could exist in the world than the one we are currently feeling, but we are always proven wrong the next morning, when the pain has inevitably managed nearly double.

"What is it bastard?" I ask even more irritably than usual.

"Oh, it's you Lovi. You need to get up; you've slept in way too late." At his words, I begin to grudgingly get up. I swing my legs over the side of the hammock, but when I try to stand up the pain is so sharp that I drop to the ground. The pain only increases as I smash against the floor, and I'm unable to completely hold in a scream.

"Lovi, what's wrong Lovi? Are you okay!?" I groan as I attempt to stand. Antonio reaches out a hand to help me up, and I grab it, though I pull back as soon as I'm up. "What's wrong Lovi, do I need to run and get Kiku?"

"I'm fine, my leg was just asleep or something" Antonio looks at me, and I can tell that he's nowhere near believing me. I try to figure out a better explanation, but I can't think of any reason why I would have acted that way if I were completely fine.

"_Just tell him already Lovi. I already told Ludwig, and he's having trouble not letting anyone know. If you don't tell Toni, _I will,_ and I'm pretty sure he'd rather hear it from you."_

_"I can't tell him, I don't want to hurt him."  
"Suck it up. You're going to hurt him even more if you don't say anything at all."_

Apparently the pain (or my attitude) was finally getting to Feli, because his words were sharper than usual. In fact, if I didn't know better I would have mistaken him for myself.

"_Fine whatever idiot."_

_"Kay, good. I'll give you two some privacy." _As soon as I agree, Feli's voice changes from annoyed back to his normal happy go luckiness, and I wonder if he was only acting angry to get me to agree with him. This theory is only strengthened when I sense a smug feeling coming off him as he fades out.

"Lovi, Lovi are you still in there? That's it, I'm getting Kiku, stay here I'll be right back."

Apparently as I was talking to Feli, Toni had been saying something, and I had taken too long to respond. "No don't. Sorry I was just talking to Feli, and didn't hear you. I'm fine idiot." I pause, realizing that I'm supposed to be telling the truth. "Well actually, I'm not fine, but I don't need Kiku."

"What is it then Lovi?"

"It- it's something I probably should have told you a long time ago, but didn't because I thought it would hurt you. The thing is… You should give up on the search for Arthur, the spells going to wear off in a few days, on my birthday to be exact."

Antonio looks happy for a second, before something dawns on him, dragging the newly formed smile into a confused frown. "Wait Lovi, why would that hurt me? Isn't that a good thing?"

"Yeah it is a good thing… for Feli. For me, not so much." Antonio continues to look at me with that same confused frown on his face, and I continue before he can ask what I mean. "See… that bastard Arthur put another part onto the curse that we never told you about.

"When we reach out twentieth birthday, either Feli or I will die, while the other one goes on to live as normal a life as he can. The one who lives will be the one who wants to live the most, the one with the strongest will."

Antonio's face is still in that confused position, as if it's stuck like that. Only after a full minute does he start to move, but even then all he manages to do is soundlessly move his lips.

"Well say something bastard." I say after I realize he isn't going to do so on his own.

After an eternity, he finally regains the ability to speak, although I barely recognize his voice. Normally his voice is so cheerful and full of happiness (that's one of the things I love about it), but when he speaks now his voice holds no trace of joy.

"You can't die Lovi. You've got to find a way to survive. There's got to be a way. You can survive this, I know it. You just have to..."

"Of course I _can_ bastard. But the only way I could do that would be by killing my brother. If I did that I wouldn't _want_ to live anymore. I _have_ to let him live. He's so happy all the time, and has so many people who love him! He deserves to survive."  
"But Lovi, I love _you_, doesn't that mean anything?"

"_Of course it does! _It means that this is _even more_ painful. It means that it'll be even harder to carry through with my decision. It means that all the pain that the curse is causing me right now is _nothing_ compared to the pain of knowing I'm going to lose you! It means that my life right now is even more of a _hell_ then it would be already!

"There's a reason I told you we couldn't be together you know, but you didn't care. You just kept chasing after me, and making me fall more and more in love with you! Making this hurt _worse _and _worse."_

As I talk, my voice continues to rise in volume, until I am screaming loud enough that I wouldn't be surprised if the entire crew could hear me.

"God! You're such a bastard Toni, why the hell did you have to make me fall for you?"

Antonio stares at me speechlessly, not knowing how to respond. Apparently my rant took the last bits of energy I had left straight out of me, making me practically unable to support myself. I slowly move over to the nearest wall and lean against it, and watch Toni from my spot.

He is still staring at the spot I just left, with a look of horror and pain on his face, the same look that I'm sure is painted all over my own face. After what seems like an eternity, he finally begins to move, walking towards where I'm standing.

When he reaches me, he stands in front of me, placing an arm on either side of me, pinning me against the wall and making it impossible for me to get away even if I had somehow found the strength to move. He looms over me, his height even more obvious than usual. He stays that way for another eternity, only his chest moving as it rises and falls. He stares at me with eyes filled with such intensity that I have to look down to keep my sanity. I feel my face being covered by silent tears, but I'm not sure if they're falling from my eyes or Toni's.

"Lovino" I look up slowly at Antonio. When I see his face it's changed from earlier. It's still filled with pain, but there's also a desperation there that I am surprised to see. "You are going to survive this."

I feel the rage that had left me begin to build up again. How could he even think like that? How could he think I could kill my brother? What kind of person does he think I am!? Before I can ask any of these questions out loud though, Antonio starts to speak again. "I'm not saying that you should kill your brother, I know you would never do that. I'm saying that we'll find Arthur and make him free you before anything can happen."

"Sure, of_ course_ you can." Once again, the anger's gone, and all that's left is a tired, painful hopelessness. "It's not like you've been searching for months and months for him and come up with nothing. I'm sure finding him will be the easiest thing ever."

"Lovino, do you love me?"

"…of course bastard, I thought that was already established." I feel some emotion return to me as I say that, loving him might have made this mess so much worse, but it's also the only thing I'm completely confident in.

"Then trust me. I won't let you die. We'll find him, and we'll make him fix you. You just have to believe that. Can you do that, for me?"

"…Fine, I'll try." At my answer, a small smile replaces the look of pain on Antonio's face, and seeing some of the pain leave his face is enough to lift some off of my own heart.

He steps back a bit, letting one of his hands drop to his sides while the other stays in front of him. "Shake on it?" He asks, not sounding happy but not sounding depressed either.

I start to hold out my hand, but then stop myself and step towards him instead. He looks at me confusedly as I take yet another step towards him, pushing his arm out of the way as I move.

"I have a better idea" I respond, then step even closer to him. I get on my toes to make the height difference less noticeable, and use my arms to pull Antonio's head the rest of the way to me.

When my lips first meet his he stiffens, apparently unable to comprehend what is going on. A split second later though, he obviously gets the idea, and starts kissing back. His arms wrap around my waist, and I leave both my hands around his neck. After what seems like a much too short forever, he pulls back from me, although he continues to hold onto me.

His face breaks into a full smile, and I feel myself following. "I love you Antonio." And for the first time, the words aren't accompanied by a sense of guilt or a wave of pain. All I can feel is an incredible sense of rightness.

A love like this _can't _die.


	24. Chapter 24

_**One week left**_

**Ludwig's POV**

I look at the young man in question, Alfred 'Freedom'Jones, wondering how on Earth he is supposed to be some sort of powerful wizard. His messy dark blond hair, and bright blue eyes make him seem the kind to be some sort of adventurer, not someone who would study dark magic, but Vladimir said he has connections to that bastard Arthur. When we had arrived at this port town, Vladimir had gotten all excited about the fact that this boy had traces of Arthur's magic all over him, but I have a feeling this will be yet another dead end.

"Yeah, I know Arthur Kirkland. Up until 'bout a week ago I was apprenticed to him, till I decided to go my own way. The guy was kinda dark and creepy, and I was way too heroic to stay with longer than I had to!"

At these words I turn to Antonio who looks as stunned as I feel, and Vladimir and Kiku who look like they had heard only what they expected to. After having so many leads turn out to be worthless, finding a fresh one was pretty shocking to me.

"Do you know where he went!?" Antonio practically shouts in the boy's face, causing him to take a step back before responding.

"Not really no, but he gave me an enchanted map to find him in case of emergency. He wasn't exactly happy about me leaving him so I guess he wanted me to be able to find him if I changed my mind. I'm not planning on using it, so yall can have it if you explain to me why exactly why you're looking for him.

"I might not like the guy, but if you are all wizard hunters or some crap like that, I'm not going to help you find him. And before you try anything, the map won't work unless I cast a spell on it so there's no use trying to steal it from me.

"Don't try lying about your reasons either; I'll be able to tell if you do."

I look at Antonio to see if he wants to explain, but he motions for me to talk instead. "He cast a curse on some friends of ours quite a few years back. If we don't find him and make him take it back within the week, one of them will…" I cut myself short unable to complete the sentence. I'd only been able to keep my cool this long by not allowing the option of failure to cross my mind. Saying the possible outcome out loud would break all the control I had left.

"One of them will die." Vladimir finishes for me. Both Antonio and I flinch at the mention of death, but at the same time I'm grateful that he voiced out loud what I'm unable to say.

After Vladimir speaks, Alfred remains silent for a few moments before speaking. "Dang, that's harsh. I knew Arthur was dark, but that sucks. Here, take the map, I definitely never want to see Arthur again if he's in the business of killing people." Alfred pulls off the bag that's slung over his shoulder and rifles through it until he pulls out a large folded piece of parchment, and mutters a few words over it before handing it to Antonio. "I hope you find him dudes. The map has a marking for wherever the holder is, as well as one for Arthur. It's pretty simple to figure out. I would come with yall, but I'm pretty sure me being there would make him even more ticked off than usual.

"Just be careful. I'm sure you know this, but he's not exactly the most well balanced person out there. If he's willing to kill one person, I have a feeling he wouldn't hesitate to kill yall as well."

"We'll keep that in mind. Thank you." I end up being the one to respond since Antonio has already turned and begun the run back to our ship, to tell Lovi and Feli (who are now unable to get out of bed) the good news, and plan out our next move. "I've got to go now." With that I too turn and run to the ship, excited as Antonio to tell the two what we had found. Vladimir and Kiku slowly turn and follow me at a walk.

I quickly manage to catch up to Antonio, who had gotten delayed by tripping over a tomato cart. Thankfully we had found Alfred fairly near the docks, so we didn't have very far to run.

As soon as we get on board the ship, we sprint down to the medical cabin where Feli and Lovi have been resting.

"Lovi, guess what? We have a fresh trail! And I'm sure about this one, we have a map!" Lovino (or Feli) doesn't respond to Antonio's extremely loud voice, so he steps closer to see what's wrong.

I also step forward, and am shocked by what I see. Feli's face looks ashen, and is covered in sweat. "Feli, are you alright?" I ask right as Antonio asks the same of Lovino. Feli doesn't even stir at my words. I walk over and try to wake him up by shaking his shoulder, but he doesn't even respond. "Feli! Feli are you alright?" His skin is cold, and if he weren't breathing as raggedly as he was, I would have thought he was dead. I continue to shake him, but he shows no signs of being near waking.

"Lovi, why aren't you waking up? Lovi?" Antonio's words snap me out of the daze I had apparently fallen into, and I realize that he's also shaking Lovi to try to wake him up.

I don't understand. Sure when we had left the ship, Feli (who was controlling the body at the time) was in a good deal of pain, but he didn't seem this bad. Either things had taken a steep turn for the worse while we were away, or they had been masking a lot of the pain they were in.

"Ludwig, go up on deck, and when Vladimir and Kiku get back tell them to come down here as soon as possible. I'll stay with Feli and Lovi." I nod, grateful that Antonio is somehow able to keep a clear enough head to know what needs doing.

I hurry on deck, and stand impatiently waiting for a few minutes until I see Kiku and Vladimir come into view on the docks. I run down the gangplank and rush towards them, only stopping when I'm less than a foot away. "Something happened to Feli. He needs help. Now!" Apparently they hear the desperation in my voice, because instead of asking any more questions, they rush towards the ship to find out for their selves what's wrong.

* * *

**Antonio's POV**

"Well, what's the problem?" I demand of Vladimir, since I think he's more likely to know what's going on than Kiku.

"It has to do with the curse. They won't wake up until the curse is lifted… or fulfilled. Apparently the spell is giving them time for a mental test of strength or something like that, to know who will survive. There's no way to wake them up while the curse is still active."

"Why didn't you tell us this earlier?" Ludwig asks angrily.

"I didn't know." Vladimir calmly responds. "I assumed it would be a split second thing, not a week long faceoff. Magic works in odd ways sometimes."

"What do we do now?" I ask, at a loss of what to do.

"Exactly what you were planning on doing before. We use that map to find Arthur, and we convince him to heal them. It's probably better this way since we'll have to bring them with us and this way we don't have to worry about hurting them as we travel, they were in a lot more pain than they let on."

"Alright sounds like a plan." Ludwig responds, still sounding upset. "Antonio take a look at that map and tell us where we need to go."

I take the map, which I still have folded in my hand, and look at it to find out where we need to go. I see a red marker where I am and a dark green one pretty far inland. It's situated right outside a small village, one that I have never heard of before. There's also a marking showing what is assumedly the quickest course between the two, as well as a mileage marker in the bottom right corner. When my eyes reach that part of the map, I feel my heart drop to the middle of my stomach.

"So how far is it?" I hear Ludwig ask me. I silently hold up the map, and show it to him, pointing out the place where it states the distance.

"What's the problem?" Kiku asks quietly after realizing that neither Ludwig nor I are able to respond. I look at Ludwig, but he shakes his head at me, so I take it on to myself to answer.

"The place where it's located, would take us more than a week and a half to travel at top speed only stopping to let the horses rest. In that time, Feli and Lovi will be… dead.

* * *

**3****rd**** Person POV**

White. As far as one could look in any direction, there was nothing but white. There were no shadows, for there was no light source, instead it was as if light was coming from everywhere.

But at the same time, it was coming from nowhere at all.

In the same way that it was endlessly bright and white, it was also completely black, a dark shadow covering every inch of the endless landscape. A person couldn't see an inch in front of their face, and yet they could see everything there was, for miles in all directions.

Which was… nothing. That was probably the best way to describe this indescribable landscape. It was nothing.

The only defined thing as far as the eye could see were two small bodies, completely identical in all but what was going on in their mind.

"Lovi, where are we?" Both the bodies look around, trying to see anything in the nothingness. Eventually they turn back to each other, unable to find anything.

"I don't know Feli; it must be part of the curse."

"Lovi, I'm scared." Feliciano curled his arms around himself, as if to protect himself from the intimidating landscape.

"I know Feli, me too. But you don't need to be. In a week you'll be back to yourself, and Ludwig and everything will be fine." At these words, Lovino put his hands on his brother's shoulders to comfort him.

"But Lovi, what do you mean, if I went back that would mean that…" Feliciano trailed off, unwilling to put his thoughts into words.

"Duh idiot. It means I won't. It's fine. This is always what I planned on doing. You can't die, I won't let you." Feliciano tried to respond, but Lovino wouldn't let him. "Shut up, trust me, I know what I'm doing. Just promise me one thing. Tell Antonio goodbye for me, and remind him how much I love him."

"No." Feliciano responded. Lovino jerked back at the harshness of his answer, not sure how to respond to it. "No. I can't do that; I can't kill you."

"You have to, and it doesn't really matter what you want, it'll happen either way. I couldn't let myself live if you were the one who died, so don't even try to force me to survive." Now it was Feliciano's turn to be taken aback, as he had no way to reply to that.

He wanted to live, but he didn't want his brother to die! However, he realized that there was no point arguing. He had always known his brother had a stronger will then him, he just always assumed it would be the reason why he _didn't_ survive this moment, not the reason he did.

"I don't want to lose you Lovi."

"I know that idiot, but it has to happen. Now come here."

With that. Lovino pulled Feliciano towards him, and for the first time in nine years, the brothers were finally able to embrace each other again. The feeling of the other's arm around them was comforting, but at the same time it hurt more than anything else.

In a weeks' time, they would be separated forever, one to go wherever one goes after death and the other back to the earth on their own.

And honestly, neither of them knew which was a worse curse.

* * *

**AN: Hey guys, sorry about the lateish update. I would like to say I hadn't forgotten about it and have a legitimate excuse but… …. Anyways! Also, sorry for any grammar errors. I really need to go to sleep soon since I have an early morning tomorrow (all the Hetalians from Hetalia day decided once a year wasn't enough to see each other, so we planned a Christmas party (I'll be going as Sweden)), so I kinda sorta rushed through editing this (if you would even call it that). So yeah… sorry.**

**Apologies aside, thanks for reading this chapter, and please review!**


	25. Chapter 25

**Antonio's POV**

"Are you sure this is going to work?" I ask, turning to Vladimir. I look over to where Lovi is tied onto the top of one of the horses we purchased (yes we actually purchased them; we decided having the authorities chasing us for horse theft wouldn't make or quest any easier). He is already falling to the side, and we haven't even started moving yet. "He doesn't look very steady."

"Of course he doesn't. I'm not done yet. Step back will you?" I do as he says, and so does Ludwig who is standing to my right. Vladimir mutters some strange words, and there is suddenly a blindingly bright light. When I can see again, I notice that Lovi is sitting upright in a perfect riding position, although clearly still unconscious.

"See. All good now, although the bright light was kind of superfluous; I wonder why that happened." Vladimir starts muttering to himself in some magical terminology I don't get, and so I take that as my cue to start getting on my own horse. Apparently I made the right choice, because Vladimir gets up on his horse (while still mumbling) and Ludwig quickly follows.

Unfortunately, there were only four horses available for sale around here (one of them wasn't actually for sale having already been promised to another person, but we managed to persuade the owner to sell by offering an obscene amount of gold), so the only people who could go on this quest were me, Ludwig, Vladimir, and Lovi/Feli. Vladimir said that it was actually a good thing that we had less people, something about being able to move faster, but I would feel a lot more confident if I had more of my crew backing me up.

I start to direct my horse out of the stable we're in, but Vladimir stops me. "Not yet, I still have some more spells I need to cast so we can make it on time." He starts muttering multiple spells in his incomprehensible language (I can only tell that there are more than one because after every one a bright light flashes again), and after a few minutes he seems content with his work. "Good, that should do it, although I still have no clue what's with that light." He speaks to himself. "Well, we can head out now." He then says to Ludwig and me.

I move my horse forward, and look behind me to see if Vladimir has Lovi's horse attached to his or something. He doesn't, but somehow the horse is moving in the same direction as we are anyway. It must be part of the spell or something.

"So… not to be a downer or anything, but how exactly are we supposed to reach Arthur in less than a week?" After finding out the bad news, Vladimir didn't even seem to worry at all. He just nodded, and then told Ludwig and me to try to find at least four horses so that we could move out quickly. His optimism _was_ comforting, but now that we're on the move I think that I have time to ask about the details of "our" plan. I manage to keep my attitude calm though, figuring that that's the best way to deal with the situation.

"You don't think I cast all those spells for nothing did you? Along with the spell to make the kid's horse stay with us, I also cast some that would help us move faster." Vladimir answers as if it should be the most obvious thing out there.

"What kind of spells?" Ludwig asks just as we get our horses onto the main street and they start galloping without any cue from us.

"One to make them be able to practically run all the way there without needing rest or nourishment, the spell gives them all the energy they need. One to keep them on track so we don't have to worry about leading them and another that will let us keep riding even in our sleep. And one to keep us from getting hurt too badly from riding, so that we can still walk after nearly a week of staying on these horses."

All of those seem like pretty good ideas but it seems pretty complicated. "Wouldn't it just be easier to teleport us there or something?" I ask Vladimir.

"You don't know much about magic do you kid? Trust me; this is a lot easier, and safer. Unless you _want_ to end up with your body scattered across the country." I flinch and stop talking deciding that I had better leave the magic details up to the expert. I look over to Lovi, to assure myself he hasn't gotten any worse. He looks to be in the exact same condition as earlier today, except for the fact that he's now sitting up.

I feel another wave of worry wash over me; so many of them have been hitting me today that I feel like I'm drowning in an ocean, but I manage to stay afloat. We have a way to find Arthur, and a way to get to him in time. Being in a state of panic for the whole week would do nothing to help Lovi, so I'll have to stay positive.

We'll be there in no time, and then we could save Lovi!

…

…

…

"How long have we been riding Ludwig?"

"About ten minutes."

"Oh" … this is going to be a long few days isn't it? I've got to come up with something to do to pass the time. Umm… Oh I know! I have the perfect way to do that... "One-hundred juicy tomatoes on the vine, one-hundred juicy tomatoes; you take one down pass it around, ninety-nine juicy tomatoes on the vine!" I hear a sigh coming from the direction of Ludwig and Vladimir, they're probably upset that they didn't think of this first~. "Come on, it's more fun if we all sing it together. Okay… ready? Ninety-nine juicy tomatoes on the vine…

…

…

…

…

…

…

"You take one down pass it around, now there's no more tomatoes left on the vine~! Wow that was fun" Although Ludwig and Vladimir didn't seem like they were singing very loudly, maybe they have sore throats. "What should we do now…? Oh I know! Ready for it? …One-hundred delicious churros on the plate, one-hundred delicious churros; you pick one up, gobble it down, ninety-nine delicious churros on the plate."

…

…

…

…

…

…

"Um… what now… Ooh I know! I have some good jokes. Ready for this?

"Okay… okay ready? Why did the tomato blush?" Neither of the two answer, that's good that means they haven't heard this one before. "Because he saw the salad dressing!" I burst out laughing but quickly realize that I'm the only one who is (although Ludwig's horse _did_ whinny if that counts). "Get it, salad _dressing_! Like it's getting dressed, but it's also the name of a food! Get it?" Ludwig and Vladimir still aren't laughing, maybe the jokes too complicated for them, I'll have to come up with a simpler one. "Kay what about this one? What did the sergeant tomato say to the slacker soldier tomato? …. You better catch up! … Get it… ketchup!"

…

…

…

…

…

"… you're getting mayonnaise on me!" I start laughing at this one even more than any of the last few… mayonnaise.

I look over to where Ludwig is riding to see if he's laughing, but he must have a headache in addition to a sore throat since he's holding his head in his hands. Vladimir too… poor guys. I hope they feel better soon.

* * *

**Ludwig's POV-However many days later**

"Are you sure this is the best thing to do?"

"I'm sure, trust me. I already explained to you why."

"Alright then, I guess we're off." I respond to Vladimir before getting back up on my horse and moving out.

We finally managed to make it to the small village near where Arthur was, although it was a long boring trip (I only survived it because Vladimir used his magic to keep us entertained and to make Antonio stop talking). However, even worse that the boredom was the fear.

Everyday Feli (and Lovino)'s breath had gotten shallower, and his skin colder. I was sure something would go wrong before we found Arthur, but they managed to hold on.

It was now not even a full day to when Vladimir said that the exact hour that the curse would take full effect. It was only a few kilometers to where Arthur was marked on the map, but there was one problem we hadn't foreseen.

It turns out that Vladimir wasn't planning on coming with us to confront Arthur; instead he is going to stay with the twins right outside town while _we_ deal with the crazy wizard. This makes things a lot more nerve racking than I had originally thought they would be, but we have no other choice. After we manage to convince Arthur to help Feli, we are supposed to bring him back to Vladimir and the twins to break the curse.

The one problem, neither Antonio nor I know how to deal with magic. In my opinion this seems like a pretty big obstacle, but both Antonio and Vladimir seem confident we'll be able to manage it, so maybe they know something I don't. That or they're just overly optimistic.

After only a few more minutes of riding, a large beaten down mansion comes into view. "Is this the house?" Antonio asks loudly. I shush him before checking the map (which had conveniently zoomed in the closer we got to Arthur) and nodding.

We quickly get off out horses and tie them (and the extra one that we had brought just in case) to the railing around the porch. I am prepared to kick open the door, but when I test the knob, there is no resistance. I silently walk in (with Antonio following only slightly less quietly) and look back down at the map. I wonder quickly if Arthur knows we're here, but decide that there's no reason worrying. If he does, he does. If he doesn't he doesn't.

After a few minutes of silently creeping through the house and following the map, I begin to hear a deep chanting that sounds extremely foreboding. As I creep further, I start to see light flicker across the walls of the hallway as we walk down it, and in a few seconds I pinpoint the door both the light and the sound are coming from. I check the map, and it confirms that Arthur is indeed behind the door.

I motion towards the door and Antonio nods, having assumed what I knew. We both pull out our swords and creep forward, Antonio in the lead this time. He quietly tests the door, and when it proves to be unlocked, he quickly opens it and rushes inside, with me at his heels.

When I enter, the first thing that I notice is that this room has the same setup as the one from Lovino and Feli's story, with candles and blood forming a large series of circles in the middle of the room. And in the center of the main circle, stands a man in a long black cloak, with the hood down showing his messy blond locks of hair.

As appearances go, his would normally be described as harmless, but the aura of power radiating off of him is anything but. Something about the room, or maybe the man, leaves both Antonio and I unable to move, freezing us in place. The man slowly turns around, and when he is looking fully at us, he speaks.

"Antonio, Ludwig, you're here. What took you so long?"

* * *

**AN: Hey guys, sorry this chapter sucks… I have no excuse (and I know Toni is acting really stupid… I don't even know). Anyways, thanks for reading, and please review. Next chapter things should pick up, with Arthur being introduced in more than just one line. Also, the jokes aren't mine, I just Googled Tomato jokes. So anyways, please review and whatnot!**


	26. Chapter 26

**Ludwig's POV**

"You're Arthur?" Antonio asks, with his voice darker than I have ever heard it. The man does nothing but nod, and once he does Antonio rushes forward to attack him, apparently overcoming the immobility.

I reach out my hand to stop him, we need Arthur's cooperation not his death (although I do enjoy the thought of the second), but he is already out of my reach. However apparently I had nothing to worry about because as soon as Antonio gets to the edge of the circle, he looks as if he's been picked up by a giant hand and is thrown across the room and into a wall.

I rush to where he's lying fearing the worst, but after a few seconds he gets up rubbing his head.

"Now that was quite rude." I jerk my head up towards the bastard as he begins to speak. "I thought you came here to reason with me, not to kill me. Unless of course you're fine with your little friends dying."

"You little-"I cut Antonio off by clapping my hand over his mouth.

"Look, I hate him too, but insulting him isn't going to get us anywhere." I whisper into Antonio's ear, before turning back to Arthur. "So based on what you've said so far, I suppose you know why we're here." Arthur nods.

"Yes, but I'd like to hear it from you, if you don't mind. That way I can decide if I want to help you or not."

I look at Antonio to see if he wants to take the lead, and he starts talking. "You cursed two young boys years ago to a fate they didn't deserve. The day that curse will be carried out is today, and we want you to change that. They don't deserve what you've done to them, and it's up to you to fix it.

"Well, you have a very good point. But… I don't think I'm going to help. Very sorry chaps." With this Arthur turns back away from us and returns to his chanting.

"The hell you're not bastard!" I shout at him, with Antonio raising an eyebrow at the fact that I am going against my own advice. I ignore him and run towards the circle, sword out. Like Antonio, some force throws me back, and I black out for a few moments. When I come to, Antonio is standing over me, and Arthur is talking.

"…really don't know how to give up. If it didn't work the first time why would it work the second?" I slowly get to my feet as Arthur keeps talking. "I learned from those brats, now I keep up a barrier that keeps people from being able to pass through into the circle. It's infallible; you can't get in so you can't get me out or break the circle. Give up already, before I end up hurting you." His words spark a thought in my mind, apparently his kind of magic can only be used inside a circle like that. If we could just get him to move out of it…

However, Arthur is right; if we can't get in, we can't get him out. I turn to Antonio to see if he has any ideas, but when I look at him, he has already taken of running towards the barrier. Once again, he is thrown to the side, and Arthur makes another comment, but this time I'm watching close enough that I notice something.

I run over to where Antonio is lying, and once he's up I whisper in his ear. "That last time you attacked, I noticed something."

"Yeah, I noticed something too. This wall is a lot harder the second time around." He responds, uncharacteristically sarcastic.

I glare at him a moment before continuing as if uninterrupted. "It looks like although you didn't get through, the edge of your sword did. I think there's a chance that the barrier only keeps _people _from getting through." Antonio pauses for a moment, before whispering in my ear.

"I have a plan."

* * *

**Arthur's POV**

I smile as the Spanish one, Antonio, runs at me with his sword sticking out in front of him like he's joisting. His sword comes right through the barrier, although he goes flying back. The other one, Ludwig, gives a short smile that is quickly wiped off his face when I move my hand to the side and the sword flies out towards him. He barely gets out of the way without being cut. When the sword hits the wall, it makes a gash, and I'm honestly surprised that the blade sustains no visible damage.

"You two aren't as stupid as I thought; you figured out that my barrier only keeps living things from getting through. However, I can still consciously manipulate anything that gets through." I smirk at the irritation and anger now on the two's faces at my attitude.

"_That _was your plan Antonio? Really?" My smirk only gets bigger when the blond seems to turn on the Spaniard.

"What? You told me my sword could get through!" Antonio replies, holding his hand up in defense.

"Yes because it's _obviously_ that simple" He responds with sarcasm dripping from his voice. "This is stupid. Maybe he's right, maybe there's no point in trying." He continues his voice dropping to a defeated monotone.

"What did you just say?!" Antonio yells. "There's always a point! I'll keep fighting until he either takes the curse back, or I'm dead!"

"Fine do what you want." Ludwig responds, sounding suddenly and completely out of energy. "I never even wanted to have anything to do with all this magic bullshit, and I'm definitely not going to die from it."

Antonio's face is so comical that I find myself laughing; it's covered with betrayal and hurt. "Fine, do whatever the hell you want!" He responds. Ludwig moves to a far corner of the room, murmuring something about avoiding flying swords. "Well. I thought you were leaving." Antonio states shortly.

Ludwig shrugs, and then speaks. "You're still my captain; the least I can do is bring your body back to the ship for a proper burial." He says casually, with absolutely no emotion in his voice. This guy is an absolute bastard. I like him.

Antonio glares at him for a few more seconds, before going to where his sword is laying and picking it up. Once again he charges at me, the exact way he did before. I throw his sword back (this time deciding to not aim it at Ludwig) and my barrier throws him back. However he just stands up, grabs his sword and charges again.

"You know, if it hasn't worked the first several times, I highly doubt it will now either." I say to him after the tenth time of him doing the same thing. At first, between attacks, I would look back at Ludwig to make sure he wasn't planning anything, but after the third time I looked, he was sitting on the ground, leaning against the wall, quite obviously either asleep or very close.

"I'll keep doing this forever if that's what it takes!" Antonio shouts back at me.

Although the thought is quite noble, it seems very unrealistic since in a little over an hour all his struggling will be pointless. However, before I can voice these thoughts, he gets up once more and charges towards me again. I roll my eyes and deflect him once again.

After about ten _more_ tries, my patience is beginning to wear thin, and I consider casting some sort of spell to keep him still (I hadn't earlier because I had found his persistence interesting, but now it's just annoying). "Will you stop already idiot? It's completely pointless you kn-" I'm cut off mid-sentence by a blinding pain in the inside of my knee that causes me to fall forward. Before I can move, I feel a tugging at my hand, most likely from Antonio. Apparently in my fall, the edge of my hand had fallen outside of the circle.

I try to use my magic to push whoever is grabbing me away, but the pain keeps me from being able to concentrate enough to channel my power. I feel another pull at my hand from Antonio, and soon another hand grabs my other. I'm soon completely out of the circle.

I can tell when I'm no longer in it because of the fact that I feel all the energy drain out of me, making my knee hurt even worse. Damn it, how did they manage to trick me?

* * *

**3rd Person POV**

_"I have a plan. You need to make yourself not seem like a threat somehow."_

_"Why?"_

_"Do you remember that creepy girl that almost killed Lovi and Feli?" Antonio asks, looking pointedly down at Ludwig's boot where he had a knife hidden. After a moment Ludwig catches on, nodding. "You should be the one to do it; you've always been a better shot than I am." Ludwig nods, and Antonio gets up to charge at Arthur once again_

Arthur's POV

After a few moments, I get enough focus back to look up, and I see Antonio and Ludwig glaring down at me. Antonio smirks after a second, and Ludwig begins to talk. "Looks like you lost."

* * *

**AN: Hey look guys; it's not a cliffhanger for once! Anyways, thanks for your reviews, and sorry for the cliffhanger in the last chapter (I was going to update yesterday just cause, but I had to be off book for play practice that day, so all my time was spent studying my script or being at practice- so alas, no time). I might update tomorrow (since the story is close to coming to an end, and I'm ready to have it all posted), but I make no promises.**

**Anyways, thanks for everyone who reviewed, and please keep it up (please do, even if it's only just a few words, it'll make me really happy)!**


	27. Chapter 27

**Arthur's POV**

"Looks like you lost." After taking a few moments to collect myself, I turn my head up, attempting to glare at the two of them at the same time.

"I may have lost. But I still won." I say smugly. Obviously the two have no clue what I'm talking about, because they both give me blank stares. "So you caught me. What are you planning on doing now? You can't _force_ me to stop the curse. Your little friends are still going to die, and you can't do anything about it, so you might as well let me go. Nice effort you put into it though."

I smile at the anger my statement brings to the faces of the two men standing over me, but I flinch as Ludwig raises his hand as if to hit me. Actually… if he does assault me, it will probably knock me back, closer to my circle and my power. Unfortunately, Antonio grabs his hand, and pushes it back down, ruining my chances for the moment.

"Remember what you told me. We need him to cooperate with us. I doubt he'll do that if you smack him around." I roll my eyes, and decide to taunt them; despite Antonio's words he looks pretty close to 'smacking me around' himself.

"That's pretty good advice actually. I mean, I am not planning on helping out even if you do treat me hospitably, but it is still a wonderful principle." Unfortunately, instead of reacting violently, the two simply clench their fists and try to act as if I hadn't spoken.

However, they do seem to be even angrier than before, angrier than I had anticipated, and I wonder if encouraging their violence is a good idea. If I push them any further, I may end up dead instead of in my circle. While they are looking away to calm their nerves, I try to move backwards, but the pain is so great I only manage to move a few centimeters.

After a few moments, the two seem to calm down enough to speak again. Antonio is the first to talk. "Look, I get that the two made you mad or something, but they don't deserve to die. What could two children do to deserve such an awful fate?" He asks as calmly as he can.

His questions make my nine year old hatred and sadness creep rush back into the front of my mind, but I grit my teeth to hide how angry I truly am. However, I do let some of my rage come through my words as I speak.

"What could they do?_ What could they do?!"_ I take a deep breath to further calm down before speaking. "How about I tell you a little story?

"Lovino and Feliciano aren't the only ones who are twins you know." I pause for a moment, remembering her long blond hair that she always had tied pack into pigtails on either side of her hair, and the glasses that always rested perfectly on her face. "Her name was Alice, and she was the best sister anyone could ask for. We were always together, although not as literally as with your twins are. We shared everything. We were always there for each other." Again I stop as another memory washes over me.

_Alice looks at me, tears streaming down her face. I lay a comforting hand on her shoulder and wait for her to say something, knowing that talking now will only make things worse. Eventually she looks up at me, although tears continue to fall._

_"I don't know what to do Artie." Is all she manages to say before sobbing again. I understand her completely, the only reason I'm not in the same position she's is because I need to be strong for her._

_"I know Alice, I know." I shudder as an memory of our mother, with her discolored skin and vacant eyes, drawing in her final breath, passes through my mind. "It's okay, we still have each other. I know it's not the same, but that's all we really need right?"_

_After a moment she nods, and then throws her arms around my neck, burying her face into my chest. "Promise me you'll always stay with me brother."_

I tear threatens to fall down my face at the fact that I never asked her to promise me the same thing.

"She died in my arms when we were twenty. It was a runaway horse. It was my fa- It was a stupid accident." I speak nonchalantly, as if that moment wasn't what had driven my life into an endless spiral of hatred and depression.

_I look down, and see her broken body in my arms. A pool of blood is growing beneath her, and I can hear shouting in the distance, but all I can focus on is her face. Despite the pain I know she is in, she is smiling up at me happily. "It's okay Artie, don't cry" I attempt to stop my tears, but instead they continue to fall even heavier. "It's all going to be fine. I won't leave you."_

I grit my teeth and push the memory of her last moments out of my mind, focusing back on the story. "After that, I turned to magic, sure that I could bring her back somehow. I… I had to. But every avenue I looked down ended with a brick wall. I searched ten years before I found a way.

"Once a century, the stars align a certain way, creating the optimal opportunity for healing magic. It's the only time when bringing someone back from the dead is anywhere near possible.

"It was also the same night those bastards decided to break into the mansion I was in and fuck up everything." I feel my voice rising as I speak, but don't care enough to calm myself down. "They ruined _everything._ They killed her**_again_**! Don't you see! What I did was completely justified. I only did to them what they had done to me." They look shocked by my anger, and look at each other. I take that moment to move myself further back, my anger giving me the strength needed to get nearly within reach of my circle.

After a moment, Ludwig looks back and begins to talk calmly and slowly, as if trying to reason with a madman. "I'm sorry for what happened, but they were just innocent children."

"Innocent?" I say and then laugh angrily, in his mind probably confirming my insanity. "Innocent is the last thing they are! They killed her! _THEY KILLED HER_!" I scream and lurch backwards. My arm falls inside the circle, and I feel the power beginning to rush into me. I use it to pull myself the rest of the way in, while also throwing the two back, with enough force to keep them down for a few moments.

I feel my magic rushing to my injured leg, and soon it is healed enough for me to stand. When I look towards where I had thrown the two, I see them beginning to stand up. The sight of them sends another spark of anger through me, and I force them down on their knees. "Don't get up, or I won't hesitate to kill you as well."

The two look at each other and nod, agreeing to stand down most likely. I feel myself beginning to calm down. In only a short time, the curse will be carried out, and Alice will be avenged. I take a deep breath and look away from the two since the sight of them makes it near impossible to stay calm.

However when I look back at them, I see the two struggling against my magic, somehow eventually getting themselves to their feet.

When they speak, their voices are hard as iron. "We don't care." Ludwig begins.

"We'd rather die than give up on them." Antonio continues, taking a struggling step forward.

"Why are you doing this?" I ask angrily, my hand already raised in preparation of striking the final blow. "Why are you willing to die for them?"

"Because they're worth dying for." They speak in unison, before stiffening in preparation for the end.

* * *

**Third Person POV**

"I can feel it. It's today, it's soon." Lovino says with a resigned voice. Despite the fact that Lovino and Feliciano were separated from everything but their world of nothing, they could feel deep down that their time together was coming to an end.

"There's still nothing I can say to change your mind is there fratello?" Feliciano asks, with the same tone in his voice. Lovino shakes his head and tightens the embrace they are already in.

"No, but you can do something to make it easier for the both of us." Feliciano brightens up a bit at this, wondering what he could do to help. "Let's both spend our last little while happy, end things on a good note."

Feliciano nods after a moment, and then a small smile appears on his face.

The two eventually loosen their embrace, although they remain touching. Neither of them wants to be separated any sooner than they have to be.

As they sit leaning against each other, they begin to talk about good times, both from their childhood, and more recently. However, every word they speak is laced with the same meaning.

_I'll miss you brother._

* * *

**AN: Haha! Feels and a cliffhanger ending! (please don't kill me). Soooo… you know what you should do now? You should write me a review. T****_hat's it, you're getting there. Scroll down just a little more. Now type what you feel into the little box, and then hit submit. That's it. _****Good job!**

**Until tomorrow (probably).**


	28. Chapter 28

**Ludwig's POV**

"Because they're worth dying for." I say and then close my eyes, preparing myself for the end.

I always expected that I would see pieces of my life in the moment before I die. I had thought maybe they would be pictures of my childhood, or a clip of my grandfather's funeral, or even a play by play account of all of my battles. I had probably expected everything but what I got.

I saw a face. A single, beautiful face. And I saw the man that made that face beautiful. I saw his happiness that made me ecstatic, his silliness that made me never want to stop laughing, his perseverance that made me want to work harder than ever before, and his love that made me want to hold onto him forever. I saw Feliciano, and it was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.

I feel a small smile come to my face in the last moment before the end.

_Feliciano._

_._

_._

_._

_._

_._

_._

_._

_._

_._

_._

_._

_._

I slowly open my eyes after nearly a minute has passed since Arthur last spoke. I look at him, and his hand is still pointed out towards us, in the same position as it was before. I continue to watch him, and it's as if he's frozen. His eyes are looking out into the distance, and I wonder where his mind is.

I glance at Antonio, and he is standing frozen looking at Arthur, just as I am. The three of us stay that way for a short eternity, until Antonio loudly clears his throat.

Arthur's head jerks so that he is staring right at Antonio, but then his eyes start to dart between the two of us, as if he's unsure of who to look at.

After a moment, he starts to speak, his eyes still darting around. "Wh- what did you say?" He asks, his voice breathy. "S-say it again. What did you say!?"

I look at Antonio, but when he seems unwilling to speak, I do instead. I speak softly and carefully like I would to an upset child, making sure not to anger Arthur anymore. "I-we said that they're worth dying for."

* * *

**Arthur's POV-Years in the past**

"And that's why scones are more important with tea than biscuits are." I finish with a flourish. As soon as I finish speaking I hear Alice's high laugh ring out, loud enough that quite a few heads turn to stare.

"Of Course. Whatever you say _Artie._" I roll my eyes as I fall into the much familiar argument.

"Oh come on, why do you insist on calling me Artie? That sounds like the name for a child!"

"Exactly, my baby brother needs a name as adorable as he is or else it just wouldn't make sense." Alice says, tossing the bright green scarf that I bought for her birthday over her shoulder, not quite accidentally hitting me in the face with the tip of it.

"I'm the same age as you are you tosser." I say playfully before running a bit ahead, knowing that she will try to get revenge for the insult. Sometimes it feels childish acting like this, but neither of us can ever give up the opportunity for a good argument.

"What did you just call me?" She shouts with false anger. I start running faster; even though her anger is false, it'll still hurt if she gets a good hit on me.

I speed through the market, dodging around the vendors and watching my feet so as not to trip. I hear shouting, and wonder what the conflict is _now_. Probably some poor bloke stealing a loaf of bread or something.

However, one shout stands out among the others. "Arthur! Arthur look up!" Alice's voice screams with desperation. At first I think that she is pulling my leg, but when I realize she is calling me by my whole name, I look up to see what is wrong.

I freeze when I see a huge horse running towards me, without a rider on it. I try to move my feet, but they seem like they're nailed to the ground. All I can do is stare as the stallion gallops closer and closer towards my frozen frame.

All of a sudden, I feel a pair of arms push me aside, and I fall to the ground. When I stand, the horse has already passed by, and I see a broken body lying where it once was, presumably that of whoever saved me.

I start to walk towards whoever it is, but then freeze as I see a bright green scarf, standing out from the crimson blood surrounding it. I shake my head, and realize what I should have seen before,

Alice was the one who saved me, who pushed me out of the way, and Alice is the one lying on the ground bleeding out.

I run the few steps more to her, and then drop to the ground, pulling her up in my arms. Her skin seems so cold, and there's so much blood. "Alice. Alice, please don't be dead. Please! You're alright, right?!" I scream, while looking for a sign of movement. She doesn't reply, or even move, and tears start to fall from my face.

I turn my head towards the sky, and start screaming. "Hey, you! You up there in the fucking clouds! Don't you dare let her die, hear me?! Don't you fucking dare!" As I finish my rant I hear a small chuckle beneath me.

"You know, you could have just asked politely." Alice says sarcastically.

I look down again, and see her broken body once more, causing my tears picking up. The pool of blood is growing, so that I wonder how she has any left inside her. I hear people in the distance shouting, and trying to stop the horse before it hurts anyone else. However, despite everything all I can focus on is her face. Despite the pain I know she is in, she is smiling up at me happily. "It's okay Artie, don't cry" I try to slow down the cascade coming from my eyes, but I end up crying even harder than before. "It's all going to be fine. I won't leave you."

She pauses for a moment and takes a deep and no doubt painful breath. "At least I'll try not to. I probably shouldn't be making any promises, should I Artie?"

I smile slightly at the nickname, but the smile only makes the tears worse. "Why'd you do it?" I ask when I am finally able to speak. "Why'd you risk yourself for me?!" As I speak, I'm unsure if the emotion I'm feeling is sadness or anger. If she hadn't saved me, she would be fine, and I'd be in her position. Why does she have to be the one to be like this!?

The smile on her face continues to grow, and she looks up at me with all the love in the world in her eyes, swirled together with an equal amount of pain.

She tries to speak, but goes into a fit of racking coughs instead. I flinch when I see that there is blood coming out of her mouth. After an eternity, she stops, and tries to speak again. Her voice is quiet and cracked, and I have to lean towards her to hear what she says. Even as close to her as I am, I can barely hear the words coming out of her mouth.

After she speaks, she stiffens, and I realize that it is over. I run my hand over her face, already colder than it ever was in life. I close her eyes, and then cradle her in my arms, as if she had simply fallen asleep leaning on me. As I vow to make certain that this sleep is one she wakes up from, her last words continue to echo through my mind.

"Because Artie, you're worth dying for."

* * *

**Antonio's POV**

I watch in confusion as Arthur's body starts shaking faster and faster. His eyes dart around the room, and the wild look in his eye makes me think something inside him has completely broke. I try to take advantage of his distraction and take a small step forward, but as soon as I do, his eyes lock straight onto mine. I freeze, hoping he'll lose focus, but it's as if my eyes anchor him to reality, the longer he stares at me, the calmer he seems to get, until his body has completely stopped shaking.

All of a sudden Arthur's hand falls, and the rest of him follows soon after, dropping to the floor in one almost graceful movement. As soon as he hits the ground, all the candles around him flicker out, and the symbols on the floor start unexpectedly fading out.

For some reason, his magic circle has gone out. I wonder for a second if it's some kind of trap, but then decide that makes no sense. He already had us at his mercy, why would he need to be sneaky?

I rush forward, and drag him back out of the barely noticeable circle, just in case. This time, I set him down at the opposite end of the room from it. I glance around the room to check for any funny business, and once I'm completely sure that nothing is wrong, I turn to Arthur to try to figure out what the hell just happened.

When I look at Arthur, I see that he is silently crying, and the pain on his face is so great that I unintentionally find myself feeling sorry for him.

I clear my throat, and try talking. "Arthur", I say somewhat quietly, deciding to take it slowly.

Arthur opens his eyes, and looks at me, although this time his eyes are calm and sad, rather than darting and hysteric. "Those were her last words." He said quietly before looking back down. I immediately realize he's talking about his sister, and another pang of reluctant sympathy goes out to him.

"Whose words?" Ludwig asks from behind me. I jump, not having realized he was standing behind me, but Arthur barely acknowledges the question; probably realizing that we both already know the answer.

However, he does speak next, asking another question rather than answering the last. "What did those two do to make you feel like that?" His question is almost pleading, as if he needs the answer to survive.

I try to speak, but find that I can't answer the question. I can't think of one specific thing that made me fall in love… it was just _everything_. I look over to Ludwig to see if he has any more luck, but he seems just as lost for words. Eventually I manage a quick answer. "They didn't _do_ anything, it just happened. We love them."

Arthur's eyes bore into mine, and then turn to Ludwig as if to confirm what I said. Ludwig nods, and then Arthur turns back to me.

"Bloody hell." He mutters under his breath before talking at a regular volume. "Help me up will you?" He asks, and puts his arm up towards me. I simply stare at it, confused by his sudden shift in attitude, and after a moment he rolls his eyes and stands up on his own, muttering something incomprehensible.

After he's up, he turns to look at the two of us questioningly. I feel like I should be doing something, but I can't figure what exactly that is (something about almost dying apparently messed up my decision making center).

"Well I hope you two have some sort of transportation. I'm assuming those two are back somewhere near that village, and there's no way we can get there in time just walking." With that he turns and walks out of the room, beckoning for us to follow.

I run to catch up with him, and then walk next to him on his right. Ludwig comes up to his left, and we quickly walk down the hallway.

"May I ask…" Ludwig begins before he is cut off by Arthur.

"You want me to save them right? I have to get to them first to be able do that." I suck in a breath when he says that. That must mean… he's changed his mind… but why? "It's not like I have a choice." He says, as if reading my mind. "What you have for them, it's like what I have- had for Alice. Killing one of them would just create two- or even three- more of me. And I couldn't very well kill you both in addition, after what you said it would feel like killing her.

I look at Arthur questioningly, but he completely ignores me. I notice that although he seems calm now, his eyes are still glistening with barely withheld tears. We finally get outside to where the horses are, and we mount quickly, not breaking the silence that had formed. The only time we speak on the ride is when Arthur asks where exactly the twins are, to which Ludwig gives him directions to our camp right outside the village.

When we're almost to our camp, I finally rediscover the ability to speak. "So you're going to help them?" I ask, still not believing the shift in his attitude.

"Well that's quite obvious isn't it?" He replies, his voice only sounding slightly rude.

"But I thought that you hated them. What happened?" I slightly glare at Ludwig as he speaks; reminding Arthur of that doesn't seem like a very smart idea.

"I still do hate them, I doubt that will go away very easily, but I don't want to be the one to kill either of them; to make another … me. Now shut up will you? I'm still not exactly happy with the decision, so it probably won't take much convincing to make me change my mind." I make sure to not respond, and thankfully Ludwig also remains quite.

We finally reach the camp, and Arthur jumps off his horse and runs towards the tent (that Vladimir had apparently set up since we'd been gone), leaving us to deal with the horses. I quickly tie their reigns to a small post in the ground where the fourth horse already is, and then run towards the tent. Right before I get to it, I see Vladimir quickly walking out of it.

"Apparently he needs to be alone to be successful." He says as soon as Ludwig and I have reached him.

"No way in hell." Ludwig mutters, attempting to move past Vladimir, with me following.

"Stop, I know you don't trust him, but you didn't see the condition those two were in. Another few minutes and it would have been all over, and not in the good way. He needs all the concentration he can find, and having you two freaking out in there won't help at all.

"Trust me on this." He states, when he realizes we still aren't buying it. "I know neither of you want either of them to die, so let him be." I reluctantly nod and step back, motioning Ludwig to follow suit.

I pace back and forth in front of the tent, and see Ludwig simply sit down on the ground, staring down. Every couple minutes I glance back towards the tent, and every time, nothing has changed but the position Vladimir is standing in, and even that only minutely shifts.

…

…

…

It seems like hours have passed before Arthur finally exits the tent, although for all I know it could have been only a few moments. As soon as he comes out, Ludwig and I rush to him.

"I've done what I can do. I'm not yet sure if it worked." He says after a moment, and then steps out of the way, leaving the way to go into the tent wide open.

As soon as I see the entrance, I feel suddenly unable to move forward. What if he didn't succeed? How could I survive going in there, if Lovi is already lost forever?

As I stand frozen, Ludwig moves forward, ducking under the flap and enters. I take a deep breath, and slowly follow, praying that Lovi is somewhere in there.

* * *

**AN: Hey guys, sorry for the feels and cliffhanger… again…anyways, next chapter is the last one (unless I write an epilogue which I'll talk more about next chapter), and so… yeah. I just want to tell all you people how grateful I am to everyone who has read this thing, and reviewed, and everything else. I honestly thought I'd get 50 reviews total, if I got really lucky, and yet I've gotten over 150 (by the way, you have no idea how happy I am about that), so thank you so much! Anyways, I'll either upload tomorrow or Monday, so yeah… until next time.**


	29. Chapter 29

**AN: Hey guys! This is the last chapter, unless I end up doing an epilogue (I'll talk about at the bottom), so I just want to say now how much I appreciate everyone who's read, followed, reviewed, and favorite this. It means so much to me, and I love you all so much! But anyways… on to the story-**

* * *

**Feliciano's POV**

"And the he just said 'why don't you just-" All of a sudden, Lovi stopped talking, for some reason that I couldn't perceive.

"Wha-?"

"Do you feel that Feli?" I shake my head and look at Lovi questioningly, feel what? "It feels like… wind." I look at him for a few more minutes before I feel it too. The air is barely blowing, but it makes me shiver anyway. The air had been completely still the entire time we had been in this… place; if something was changing it must mean that…

I grab onto Lovi's arm, and hold on so tight that if this were real he would have bruises in the perfect shape of my hand. As it is, all he does is flinch, probably at the implications of the wind as much as if not more than the pain.

"Lovi-"

"Yeah, I know." He responds as soon as his name is only half out of my mouth.

In the few seconds the exchange has taken, the wind has already picked up exponentially, so that I actually almost lose my balance, and worse, my grip on Lovi.

As soon as I steady myself, I renew my grip on Lovi, and brace myself against the wind. As I do, I realize that the wind is focusing on Lovi, and that if I took a step back from him it would disappear completely

I look over at Lovi, and see that he is just as scared as I am, tears falling from his eyes only to be immediately whipped away by the now raging winds. As I secure my grip, Lovi starts shouting so that he can be heard over the wind. "Feli, let go. This has to happen." I shake my head at him.

"I'm not letting you go Fratello! Maybe if I hold on for long enough it will give up or something."

A small smile seems to creep onto his face for a moment, before he shakes his head and goes back to how he was before. "No, it's pointless. And even if you could stop me from going, it might go after you next, and I'm not willing to let that happen. Let me go!"

I shake my head frantically, tightening my grip even more, causing Lovi to let out a small gasp of pain.

After a moment, Lovi looks me in the eye "Let me go." He shouts over the wind, his voice commanding. I don't respond this time, all my concentration going into keeping Lovi down. At my non-reaction, his stare hardens, and he moves his hand so that it is around my arm. I smile for a moment, thinking he's trying to stay down also, but then gasp in pain when his nails start digging into my skin.

"Let me go Feli. I don't want you to be hurt, but you have to let go."

"Lovi-" I'm cut off when his nails go even deeper into my skin, causing my grip to loosen minutely. He continues to dig his nails into my arm, until my grip is practically nonexistent. With a last effort, he pulls his arm back, and is out of my grip.

The wind pushes him away from me, and then he starts to disappear, as if the wind was eroding away at him, turning him into bits too small to see.

I see his lips move, but the wind is too loud to hear his words. I try to move closer to him, but the wind pushes me back. As I start to stand back up, I feel the world around me start to fade out, and I begin to hear sounds other than just that of the wind.

The world around me starts disappearing, and as it goes, the memories of what it looked like start to become vague in my mind, as if I were waking up from a dream.

* * *

**Antonio's POV**

I continue to rub Lovi(Feli)'s hand, as I had been doing for the past hour or so, as Ludwig does the same on their other side. He is laying on a cot set up in the tent, that Vladimir had somehow managed to bring with him.

As every moment continues, and no second body or something pops up, my anxiety continues to grow. All I can think of to keep from completely freaking out is that maybe Arthur just kept the "one of them dying" part of the curse from happening right now, and that once they woke up they would separate out.

It doesn't seem very likely, but it's the only thing I can think of to stay sane.

All of a sudden, a strong wind blows by, and then just as quickly disappears, causing a shiver to run down my spine. Before I can even look around to figure out what had happened, I feel the hand tighten around mine.

All of a sudden, Lovi's body shoots up, and his eyes open wide, looking horrified. His eyes dart to mine, and then to Ludwig, and he screams out in part joy part sadness, "Toni! Luddy!" The cute nicknames make my heart drop, Lovi would never call us that (especially Ludwig). As if to confirm my analysis, Feli pulls Ludwig down, and hugs him from where he is lying.

After a moment, I clear my throat, to ask the question that I'm scared to death to answer.

"Feli… is Lovi still…" I'm unable to finish speaking, and so I look at him, pleading with my eyes for the answer to be yes.

Feli's eyes drop, and he shakes his head slightly. "No, he's gone."

His words feel like the end of the world, and the grief that washes over me is so much that I can barely see Feliciano burst into tears, and launch even further into Ludwig's arms.

Lovi's gone. He's just… gone. Everything we did was pointless. Lovi is gone forever.

All of a sudden, memories of him rush through my mind like a hurricane.

The first time I saw him, when I was immediately drawn to the attitude that would keep him spitting fire even when he feared for his life. Watching the happiness in his face as he got lost in a sparring match, or from the top of the crow's nest, or even when eating a particularly good meal. That adorable blush he got on his face when I called him cute, and the way it felt when we kissed. I heard the way he cleared his throat when he was annoyed, demanding attention.

For some reason, that memory was stronger than any of the others, so loud that it seemed like I was actually hearing it. The third time I hear it, I realize-

I spin around quickly, and see a small form getting up from the ground in a corner of the tent. I turn my head a bit to the side, and see that Feli is still lying on the cot, staring at the spot I was just watching. I turn back towards the frame, and then gasp when he speaks.

"Seriously, none of you bastards are going to help me up?" He rolls his eyes, and the runs forward to where Feli is lying, pushing Ludwig away so that he can embrace him.

I smile bigger than I have in the longest time as the twins hug, and when I look up I see that Ludwig is too.

After a moment, Lovi whispers something into Feli's ear, and Feli nods and lets him go. Feli then gets up and embraces Ludwig completely this time with happiness rather than hysteria.

Lovino walks towards me, and as soon as he's within reach, I pull him into a crushing hug. I hear him mutter a quiet idiot, but other than that he makes no move to push me away. However, as I guessed he would, he pulls away much earlier than I want him to. I let my arms drop, and tense for the false anger he's about to dish out.

Because of that, I'm completely taken off guard when he throws his hands around my neck, and pulls me down, pressing his lips against mine.

This is by far the best I have ever felt in my entire life, completely happy, with trace of sadness or urgency marring that. As the kiss continues, every ounce of pain I had been feeling is stripped away replaced by the pure perfection of the moment.

It seems like the rest of the world is fading out, so that Lovi and I are the only two in it, and the kiss starts to become fevered.

After much too short a time, we're forced to pull back for air, and when we do, I hear the sound of someone trying to get our attention.

I look over, and see an amused Vladimir looking back at me, and blush when I realize that he had probably been watching for a while. As I look around the room, it seems like I'm not the only one, with Feli looking like the only one who isn't uncomfortable.

"Well then" Vladimir begins. "As much as I've been enjoying watching your make out session, Feliciano and Lovino haven't eaten in over a week, and in fact one of them technically hasn't eaten since he was what, ten, so I'm going to have to insist you all come out to eat. You can resume your sessions after dinner, although you might want to set up your own tents so you can have a little privacy."

I smile slightly at the awkwardness of the statement and start to walk outside; Lovi's hand tight in my grip, and his kiss fresh in my mind.

* * *

**AN: Yay! Happy (if a bit cheesy and cliché) ending! So like I said, I may write an epilogue to this, but I don't really have any ideas about it (I've been thinking ever since I started posting it and still have nothing) so please review or PM me if you do. (The big reason I'm having trouble is that most epilogues I've read involve either proposals, marriage, or having/adopting children, and I honestly don't feel like any of the characters would really do that kind of thing, so I don't know what else I would write). If nothing gets posted by the new year, then I probably won't be posted. So yeah… ideas… gimmee (please). **

** EDIT: Because of lack of inspiration, I feel like anything more I write for this would suck, so I'd rather leave the ending as a chapter that I actually like, rather than forcing myself to write something I hate (and that would just suck)... thank you for all the ideas, there were so many good ones, and I really wish I could find my muse for this story to put some of them into words, but alas, that's not going to happen... sorry.../END EDIT/**

**Also, someone asked me what I'm writing next, and although it'll probably be a while until I write it and start posting it (I have a big part in a show right now, so I have no time), but I have a poll on my profile of the three ideas I have for my next story. If you want to, please vote for what I should write next!**

**So anyways, please review, help me with ideas, and vote! And (for possibly the last time) I love you all so much, and I wish all the happiness in the world for yall!**


End file.
